The Hatchling
by Authraw
Summary: COMPLETE! The true story about Samus Aran’s past. Rated for safety. Previous knowledge about Metroid not necessary.
1. The Story Begins

_Here it is! My first Fanfic. I don't own Samus or "chozo" or "space pirate" or anything so, yeah… Without further ado…_

**The Hatchling**

_By Authraw_

**The Story Begins…**

"Oh, no." Toré exclaimed, surveying the wreckage. The expressions of the other chozo were equally grim.

They did not find what they were expecting to. They had come to the friendly colony on K2-L with the intentions of trading with the sentient lifeforms there. Instead, they found burning, wrecked cities.

The chozo slowly picked through the wreckage, looking for any signs of life. They found many bodies lying about, strewn across the floors of office buildings, slumped over in chairs as if they had no warning before their death.

Toré switched to his scan visor and scanned a few of the bodies. "Scanning Complete," The display read, "Subject was terminated approximately one subcycle ago. Lifeform appears to have been terminated by blaster technology, commonly used by the Space Pirate Empire."

"Pirates!" Toré announced to his partner, Meya. She nodded her head and continued her seemingly hopeless search for survivors. There was not a valuable item in sight, uncommon for such a rich trade colony. The Pirates had taken everything.

Toré opened up a door and was disheartened by the sight that greeted him: A young child, not more than two cycles old, dead, on the ground. The Pirates spared nobody.

Toré left the gruesome sight behind and entered another building: A dwelling, it appeared. He ventured further into the dwelling, noting the wreckage: Plates and cooking ware were strewn across the floor, books torn to shreds, there were broken chairs and tables flipped upside-down.

In the next room, Toré found two bodies. He scanned them. "Scanning Complete. Species: Human-One male, one female. Subjects were terminated approximately one subcycle ago." Toré continued on into the next room, a bedroom, it seemed, though it was hard to tell through all of the wreckage.

"Leave, now!" The voice came from behind an overturned chair. Toré heard the sound of a handblaster being cocked. Slowly switching to his X-Ray visor, Toré saw the shape of a small human behind the chair. Slightly relieved that it wasn't a pirate, he switched off his X-Ray visor and called out to the small creature:

"I'm not going to hurt you. I'm here to help you!"

There was a pause, and then the human cried out, "I don't need your help. I can get along fine by myself!"

Toré was shocked. He wasn't sure what to do, or feel for that matter. He was glad that there were survivors, but it didn't seem that he was wanted. Not sure what else to do, he called out, "What is your name?"

The answer was brief: "Samus."

"Samus What?" Toré asked, still trying to think of something.

"Aran." The creature replied.

"Well, Miss Aran, how old are you?" Toré questioned soothingly, finally getting an idea.

Samus hesitated, but then answered, "Four."

"What do you like to eat, Samus?"

"Druidberry pastries," The small voice replied.

Toré pretended to think for a moment, and then said with excitement in his voice, "I think that I might have some of those at home! Would you like some?"

Samus hesitated again, but then decided to peer her head above the chair to get a look at Toré. She saw a figure in an orange space suit. He looked just like any other chozo: His legs were long, and ended in four toes: three in front, one in the back, like a bird. His arms were also very long, falling far past his waist. In place of his right hand, a large blaster lay at the end of his arm. Through his helmet, Samus could see large, kindly eyes set into a feathery face just above a long beak.

"If you want it, though," Toré was saying, seeing that the girl was just beginning to trust him, "You'll have to come with me."

Samus hesitated again, still wary of this stranger. Toré thought of something else. "You want to see something?" He asked. The girl slowly nodded, curious as to what this strange chozo could have in store. Toré closed his left fist, waited a moment, and then quickly opened his hand. A small, translucent orange butterfly flew out of it. Samus gasped, as she had never seen this done before. The creation of holograms is a basic ability that chozo have, among other strange traits.

This trick was enough to ensnare the young girl. She dropped the handblaster that she had been clutching and traveled towards the small butterfly, that was now fluttering around the room. It landed on Samus' finger, and she studied the thing intently. Toré guided the butterfly out of the room, and thus led Samus out of the building.

Once outside, Meya spotted Toré and Samus, and called to them.

"You found a survivor?" Meya asked.

"Only one," Toré said, falling into step with her. Samus continued to follow the butterfly towards the ship.

"I still can't believe this happened," Meya whispered. It was unexpected: This was definitely the Pirates' largest-scale attack yet. Toré nodded, and opened the door of the ship.

"What are we going to do about her?" Meya inquired, motioning to Samus.

"I'm not sure," Toré said. "I guess we'll just have to take her back to Zebes with us and let Great Master Tashi decide."


	2. Starting Anew

_Chapter two is here! This is a character building chapter, so you'll have to bear with the lack of action or dialogue. It'll get better next chapter! I don't own anything Metroid. Now read!_

**Starting Anew**

Great Master Tashi was a very wise, old chozo. He had ruled fairly over the chozo for the past two hundred-eighty-nine years. All of the chozo respected his decisions, and they accepted whatever he said as fact. It shocked everyone twelve cycles ago when he decided to make Samus the daughter of Toré, but by now they all had realized that it was the best thing that could be done for the both of them.

Toré was a single chozo, about eighty cycles old, always being too shy to ever try to find a mate. His bravery was unmatched in the field of battle, and he was quite outgoing when relating to other species, but for some reason he had trouble talking to fellow chozo. He just wasn't very social.

In a sense, Great Master Tashi's choice was quite logical, as Samus was a human, and not a chozo, and Toré is least comfortable with chozo, however Great Master Tashi's main reason for picking Toré as Samus' caretaker was Toré's huge heart. He had always loved children, and had always wanted some of his own, but, being unmarried, could not. He was overjoyed to find out that he would be raising Samus.

Samus was now sixteen cycles old. Shortly after her arrival on planet Zebes and her acceptance by the chozo people, she had been infused with certain elements of chozo DNA to heighten her quality of life. The chozo were incredibly technologically advanced, second to none in terms of science. They were plagued with very few diseases as they had conquered most of them.

Chozo live to be around three-hundred cycles old, whereas humans are lucky to live to see one-hundred. One important reason to fuse Samus with chozo DNA was to greatly lengthen her lifespan. It had been done before in a few other species with great success. Another advantage of having half-chozo blood running through Samus' veins was an increase in metabolism and muscle mass, as well as a natural immunity to numerous diseases.

Samus did not have any trouble adjusting to chozo life: Like all chozo children her age, she could swim adeptly, perform martial arts, and maintain a run for over an hour. The chozo were a deeply religious and traditional people, and they believed that a strong body was the key to a strong mind.

Samus remembered very little about her life on K2-L, the demolished trade planet. She had but one memory of her biological mother and father, and remembered, thankfully, nothing of the day that they died. She was very used to the planet that she now inhabited, filled with the large buildings and littered with statues of famous chozo warriors and leaders.

She always knew that she was different, however. Not just physically, although that was the most obvious feature: She looked very little like these bird people. She was also very different emotionally. She had an excellent relationship with her father, unusual for even chozo children her age. She also was never quite accepted by her peers, yet her father helped her to remain sure of herself.

Rarely did she tarry with the children after training; she usually went straight home to her father. Toré was still learning how to be a father. He made mistakes, and he did his best to correct them, but he wasn't perfect.

Toré and Samus lived just outside of the chozo city, Chozodia. They lived in a small but sturdy stone hut, like most chozo, and they had a firepit outside. While the chozo were very technologically advanced, many of them chose to live simply, only manipulating technology when it was beneficial to both the chozo and their environment.

The chozo were trained fiercely in the art of war, even though they were generally peace-loving creatures. They had the most powerful warfare technology in the civilized universe, but they wouldn't dare use it unless they were driven to do so.

Little did the chozo know that they would be forced to use their weapons within the next twenty cycles…


	3. Prejudice

_Chapter 3 is here! This one's a little more interesting than last chapter. Just wait for chapter 4! evil grin Please review, and I don't own anything Metroid. So don't ask._

**Prejudice**

"Samus?" The teacher beckoned, "Samus!"

"Oh," Samus said, breaking from her daydream, "Sorry teacher."

"You've got to learn to stay focused, miss Aran. If you ever wish to compete on the superior level of your peers, you'll have to keep on track." The sting of the teacher's comment hurt. Most cycles, Samus' teachers accepted her as she was, but Teacher Yurh was unwilling to treat Samus the same as he treated her chozo peers.

Teacher Yurh went on, continuing to lecture about how important nature is and that we respect it. Many times Samus thought that Teacher Yurh should have left on the ship to Tallon IV with the other tree-hugger chozo.

Almost fifteen cycles ago, there was a sort of peaceful revolution within the Chozo Empire. About one fourth of the chozo living on Zebes thought that they were poisoning Zebes' natural beauty through their technology. While the chozo are much more environmentally savvy than most other sentient species inhabiting the galaxy, this small sect seemed to think that the chozo's efforts to preserve the planet were not enough. This group decided to leave behind Zebes and head to a newly discovered planet, called Tallon IV.

The chozo on Zebes had since lost contact with the chozo on Tallon IV out of a lack of interest. Each knew that the other existed, but neither really cared enough to keep in touch. So, the chozo each went their separate ways, carrying out their lives as they wanted to.

Teacher Yurh brought his metal staff down on Samus' desk, startling her back to reality again. "Samus!" He said, his voice dripping with malice, "You will now spend the rest of the day learning your lessons from the floor!"

Samus sighed and slid her books to the floor, then dropping herself off of her chair.

"Perhaps you will learn," Teacher Yurh snarled, "how you are to act as a student."

Samus frowned, trying her best not to show that she was seething inside. She did not want to give him any pleasure in knowing that he affected her. She did her best to pay attention, but she could not let go of her fury.

She noticed a chozo girl in the second row doodling on her sketchpad. She saw Teacher Yurh look down at the pad, then look up and continue teaching. That was all it took to break Samus. She could take it no longer. She stood up, picked up her books, and stormed out of the classroom.

As she stalked out, Teacher Yurh remarked to the class, grinning, "Look at that. The human can't control her feelings."

"She left? Just like that, she walked out?" Toré frowned at the video phone. Master Shek nodded. Master Shek ran the school and made sure that everything went smoothly. He was informed by Teacher Yurh immediately when Samus walked out.

"Do you have any idea where she went?" Toré asked, worried about his daughter.

"Not really. Teacher Yurh said that she just walked out. I thought she might be there with you." Master Shek explained.

"No, she's not. I have to find her… Well, thank you." Toré muttered, trying to think of where Samus might be.

"When you do find her, tell me."

"I will." Toré pressed the button to sever the line, and immediately went for his coat. He had to find his daughter.

Samus fired the laser pistol again, and destroyed another target. The machine slowed to a stop, and the targets stopped moving. Samus sighed, and read the readout. "46 of 50 targets hit – 53 shots fired – 90 accuracy"

Samus dug in her pocket for another coin, but realized that she had no money left, so she hung the pistol back in its slot on the wall. She unlatched the gate and exited the room. She walked along the rows of shooting rooms, noticing their emptiness. They wouldn't be this empty once school left out.

The one thing that established Samus from her peers was her amazing marksmanship. She could hit a target over one-hundred units away with a single shot: a feat that her peers could only accomplish once in a long while.

She wandered off to the one place that she knew for sure that she'd be left alone: The Cliffs of Chozodia. The Cliffs of Chozodia were desolate and visited very rarely by the chozo as they marked the end of the chozo's control and the wild regions beyond. Outside of the borders of Chozodia, safety from the native creatures of Zebes could not be ensured. The danger of the place, as well as its loneliness often enticed Samus: It was the one place that she could truly be alone with her thoughts.

Samus had been to The Cliffs of Chozodia many times before, but this time, she would find something that she never expected.


	4. First Adventures

_Next chapter! Now we start to get into the action! Leave a review and I don't own anything Metroid!_

**First Adventures**

As Samus neared the edge of the cliff, she heard noises from below. She dropped flat, almost instinctively, and listened to try to determine what they were. It was like a soft growling. Another growl came after the first, followed by another. It was almost as if two Alcoon were holding a conversation.

Samus carefully crawled to the edge, and peered down. She saw two creatures standing there, examining the landscape. Suddenly, in a rush, her memories came back to her.

She had been standing in the kitchen when it had happened. Her father burst into the room and shouted to her, "Samus, hide!" She scurried for her bedroom and crawled under her bed. She heard someone burst into the kitchen, and then the sound of blasters followed almost immediately. Crashing and banging was heard as the intruders threw the furniture around, searching for loot.

Samus remained breathless as three creatures shot down her bedroom door. They barged in and threw over a chair, and Samus' dresser. She got a good look at them from her hiding spot beneath the bed. They were tall, ugly creatures that looked like a combination between a human and an insect. They had huge, crablike claws for hands, and their whole body was covered in a thick exoskeleton. Their legs ended in wide, two toed feet, and each limb was segmented. They had small heads set just above a thick plate of armor on their torso. Each pirate had a blaster strapped to its right arm, and a blade extending from its left.

The pirates systematically tore the room to shreds. Many times, Samus was frightened that they would find her, but they did not think to check under the bed. Eventually, finding nothing of value, the raiders left.

Looking down at the creatures from atop the ledge she now crouched upon, Samus realized that they were of the same species. These were the very creatures that had come to her house on K2-L before she had been rescued by Toré.

Presently, the creatures started to walk away. Intrigued, and wanting to know more about this species that she had seen in her childhood, she decided to do a little spying. She slowly crawled to an area of the cliff that was not as steep as the rest, and tried to climb silently down the cliff's face.

Having being trained by the chozo, she managed to quickly reach the ground without detection. She followed the two creatures a distance, keeping far enough away to avoid being noticed. The creatures neared the entrance to Brinstar.

Brinstar was a maze of underground tunnels and shafts. In the old days, Brinstar was used as a mine, as it was rich in the substance brinstone, for which the area was named. The mine was eventually abandoned because it was much too hard to protect the miners from the wild creatures without killing a large number of them, upsetting the ecosystem.

The creatures began to descend into the large hole that marked the entrance of Brinstar, and Samus followed. All the while, the two creatures talked to each other in their own strange tongue. They encountered the door to the first mine shaft and stopped, unsure of how to open it. They found out quickly enough by shooting it a single time with their blasters.

The door design had been used for many cycles by the chozo, and would later be adopted by almost all other civilizations around the galaxy. It was a metal, dome shaped door protected by a thin, translucent blue force field. When shot with any kind of beam weaponry, the door would open. It was very effective in preventing the entry of most non-sentient creatures.

Samus watched the creatures enter the mine and then the door closed behind them. Samus winced: now she couldn't tell how far away they were. She waited a minute or so, and then, hesitatingly, pulled out her small pistol. Like all chozo, she carried a small pistol that could be used to stun small, wild creatures. It was strictly forbidden to use this pistol on a sentient being, under severe punishment.

She shot the door, and it quickly opened with an all-too-loud whoosh. Much to her despair, the creatures were not far enough from the door. Samus tried to run the other direction, but it was too late: The creatures whirled around and saw her.

Samus ran as fast as she could, fearing what the creatures would do if they caught her, she made her way back to the cliff. She heard them cock their blasters. She ran faster, her breath coming faster and faster. She could hear the pounding of the creatures' feet behind her, getting closer… closer…

As she reached the cliff, she began to climb swiftly. Climbing came like second-nature to her, and she was making her way to the top easily. Suddenly, she heard the sound of a blaster firing from behind her, and there was a sharp pain in her arm. Gasping, and trying to handle the pain, she continued to climb.

She had almost reached the top when she was hit by a second shot from the blaster. This one had found its mark just below her right shoulder blade. She cried out from the pain, and dropped from the cliff, unable to bear the burning sensation in her arm.

She fell for a moment, and then hit the ground with a sharp crack. Her vision went cloudy for a moment, and then everything went black.


	5. Trapped!

_Here's the next chapter. It starts to get interesting from here! Remember to leave a review, and I don't own anything Metroid! Oh yeah, and I made a few minor changes to the previous chapters to make them flow a little better. :D Okay, now read!_

**Trapped!**

Samus woke up to find herself in a large, translucent blue stasis tank. There were electrodes attached to her head with wires running up through the top of the tube-like cage. She felt her shoulder, which seemed to be miraculously healed from the gun blasts that she had endured. She checked her side: She had been relieved of her pistol. It wouldn't have mattered, anyway. It was a weak pistol. It would have had no effect on the creatures holding her captive.

She began to look for a way to escape. She saw that the room around her was filled with computers and electronic equipment. There was a large vat of red liquid sitting next to her tank, and Samus could swear that it was glowing. There were several other stasis tanks in the room identical to Samus', but they were empty.

Samus took to studying the computer nearest her. She had trouble reading the screen, as it was facing away from her, but she could crane her neck enough to be able to see some of it.

The readout was in some sort of alien language. It was not one of the ten languages taught to chozo children, it was something completely different. The characters seemed somewhat harsher, a bit more angular than any of the other languages Samus had seen before.

Presently, one of the creatures walked into the room. It looked at Samus and noticed that she was awake. Samus felt fear well up inside herself. The creature calmly walked over to the computer system in front of her and pressed some buttons, apparently reading the readouts. It nodded, satisfied, and walked away. Samus was alone once again.

Then, Samus felt an unprecedented panic rise up within herself. She banged on her containment capsule with her fists. She pounded, frenzied and not thinking, and when she realized that it was not working, she started clawing at the walls. She felt her tank closing in around her, choking her.

She started to throw her body at the walls, trying in vain to escape. A buzzer sounded in the room and a few creatures hurried in to see what was happening. They saw Samus slamming herself against the container, and one of them quickly hurried to the computer by her tank. He pressed a few buttons, and then a hissing sound could be heard above Samus.

Samus was now pounding so hard at the container that her whole body began to ache. The hissing sound only made her more frightened, and her actions became more frenzied. Suddenly, as if someone had flipped a switch, Samus began to feel light-headed. Her vision slowly faded, and she collapsed on the ground, not to wake up for several hours.

When Samus woke again, she felt very drowsy. Her actions were sluggish, and she had trouble thinking clearly. Once she had assembled some semblance of a thought, she realized that the creatures had given her a sedative.

Slowly, her mind cleared. She began to wonder what they wanted with her. Why was she being kept in this container? She did not have much time to contemplate this before some of the creatures came back again.

There were three of them. One was small, and mostly unarmored like the ones Samus had seen before. Two of them had a large gun strapped to one arm and a wicked, curved blade attached to the other. The small one moved to the computer nearest to Samus, and motioned to the other two. They walked right up to Samus' tank and braced themselves.

Again Samus felt a foreboding terror within her inner being. She sat waiting, watching, wishing the creatures would go away.

The small one pressed a button on the computer, and all of the electrodes on Samus' head dropped off. It happened so quickly that it startled her. Then, very slowly, the walls of her tank started to sink into the ground.

The very walls that Samus had so desperately wanted to escape from before were now her only protection from the creatures waiting outside. She was frozen in horror, wishing with all of her being that the walls would stop decending.

When the walls had reached Samus' hips in height, Samus felt very vulnerable. The hulking creatures were units away from her, and there was no escape. She simply stood there, unsure of what to do.

Without warning or waiting for the tank's walls to completely descend into the floor, the two creatures on either side of Samus grabbed her. She screamed and swore at them, suddenly being shocked into reality. They took no heed, and dragged her towards the door, holding her wrists and sliding her legs along the floor.

Samus did not know exactly why, but she did not want to go through that door. She kicked and struggled, but she was no match for the burly creatures. Their claws dug deep into Samus' arms. She was startled to see blood dripping down her arms to her shoulders: The creatures were clutching her arms firmly.

The door approached quickly, and Samus could do nothing to stop it. It slid to the side, and Samus braced herself for what she would find behind it.


	6. Dread

_Sorry it took me a while to get this chapter out: Crazy weekend! It's kind of short, sorry. All characters are original except for Samus! I've stopped using the asterisk for time breaks and I'm now using X (For my own convenience)_

_Pix, the chozo are an entire race of 'alien birds'. Toré is one of them. And I plan to stretch out this whole tense moment as looooong as I can. Mwahaha! I am evil!_

_Enough of this: On with the chapter!_

**Dread**

"Have you seen Samus?" Toré asked, worried out of his mind. He had been searching for her all day, and he was now questioning the children leaving school. They all shook their heads no, and none of them seemed to have any idea where she might have gone.

Toré had already checked the shooting range, Samus' favorite spot to hang out after school. He had looked near the fountain, in the temple, and all over the school grounds. She didn't seem to be anywhere.

Just then, a young chozo ran up to Toré. "Uh, sir?" He said, a bit of nervousness in his voice, "I think you should come take a look at this."

"What? What is it?" Toré pleaded, fear catching in his throat. The worst thing in the world that could happen would be if Samus were to get hurt.

The young chozo lead Toré away from Chozodia's center and towards the Cliffs. Toré felt utter dread well up inside of him: The Cliffs of Chozodia were dangerous. What if she had fallen? What if she had been attacked by a wild animal? What if she had decided to go adventuring, and was now lost?

The young chozo pointed out what he had seen. There, on the ground was the awkward shape of a human footprint: It matched the specially-crafted shoe that had been made for Samus when they realized that a chozo shoe would not fit her foot structure. This had to have been the way Samus had come.

Toré felt his heart sink. "No…" He managed to whisper.

-X-

The creatures dragged Samus down the hall to another room, whose door opened with a code punched into a keypad next to it. The door slid open and Samus hesitantly looked inside.

The room was bare, with the exception of numerous locked cabinets along the walls, and one large steel table in the center of the room. The room was mostly monochromatic silver, with green glowing keypads next to each cabinet, presumably used to enter a password to unlock them. It looked terribly dull, but something about it repulsed Samus. For some unforeseen reason, she was horrified of the room.

The creatures unforgivingly dragged Samus to the table and hurled her upon it. She was now filled with animal-like instinct, and began to fight frantically, but she could do nothing. She was sprawled on her back, lying on the table. She was pinned down by the two strongest creatures while the third tied her arms and legs to the table.

The bonds were tight, and after they were tied around her wrists and ankles, the two burly creatures let go of her. There were large, nasty wounds where their claws had dug into her. They strapped her waist to the table to prevent her from wiggling, and then ran another strap across her forehead to keep her head from moving.

Samus felt terrifyingly claustrophobic, and was desperately trying to move, but to no avail. She was bound quickly and skillfully, and there was nothing she could do about it.

The creatures seemed to be conversing about something, and then one of them opened a cabinet and produced a large hypodermic needle. Samus was not normally afraid of needles, but this one seemed to strike terror into her heart like she had never felt before. Somehow she knew that whatever was in that needle was not pleasant.

The one with the needle approached Samus, and she tried to wriggle free. The world seemed to be moving in slow motion. Samus watched the needle inch closer and closer to the soft, tender flesh on her face. Her eyes widened with fear as the creature prepared to inject it into her forehead. She winced as she began to feel the prick of the needle touching her skin.


	7. A New Arrival

_Yay! New chapter! This one introduces a new main character, and leads up to a huge action chapter! I don't own Samus, but everybody else is my own original characters. Please leave a review!_

_Aran's Apprentice-Thanks for reviewing! Yeah, I really did enjoy your fic. Will you be writing more? And I don't intend to show what happens in the older games, this one is focused on Samus' childhood. But I may decide to do books on those games after this fic is finished!_

_Pixiegirl- Didn't I always say that authors were truly evil people at heart? I'm not going to reveal what they want with her for a loooong time! Mwahahaha!_

_Alright! On to the chapter!_

**A New Arrival**

A siren began blaring, shrill and loud. A red light positioned above the door began to flash. The creature removed the needle from Samus' forehead, causing only a small wound. It had not done more than just penetrate her skin: Whatever was inside the syringe would remain there for the time being.

Samus heard the coarse, harsh language of these creatures being broadcast throughout the building. The creatures all seemed to listen intently, and then they dashed out of the room. The siren stopped, but the red light continued to flash.

Samus knew that this was her big break: It may be her only chance for escape. Her quick, chozo-like mind vaulted into action. She searched the room for any way to remove the straps binding her to the table. Unfortunately, the room was barren. There was nothing sharp, and even if there was, nothing was in her reach anyway. She was completely powerless.

Her eyes snapped toward the door as it opened again. "_No!_" she thought, "_I can't deal with this!_"

She was surprised to see not one of the creatures that had been holding her captive, but a young male human. He burst into the room as if he were being pursued by some menacing enemy. Though it would be hard not to, he didn't seem to notice Samus, and instead ran behind her table and crouched behind it.

At first, Samus was too shocked to do anything. After a moment or so, however, she came to and realized that this was her opportunity.

"Hey! Help me!" She said to the boy, trying to keep her voice from wavering, but not succeeding. Samus could not see the boy as he was now behind her, but she heard him respond as if he were surprised: He truly had not noticed her before.

After a moment, the boy replied, "Uh, how?"

"Untie me!" The response was trite and urgent. Without saying another word, the boy jumped up and attempted to untie the strap on Samus' left wrist. His hands were shaking violently, Samus noticed, and he was having trouble getting at the tight knot.

After he had worked it a bit, Samus managed to pull her hand free. She immediately set to untying her head, then her waist. The boy loosened her other wrist and Samus managed to get her feet free. Without second thought, Samus sprung from the table and immediately regretted it: Her limbs were all numb, as the straps had cut off her circulation. There were deep indentations where her limbs had been strapped to the table. She rubbed her forehead: There was a small smear of blood on her hand, but it was nothing serious.

This was the first time that Samus had actually gotten a good look at the boy. He seemed to be about her age, perhaps a bit older. He was wearing nondescript, plain tan clothing. His shirt was torn at the shoulder, and he was shaking like a leaf. He had fear in his soft face. He looked like a small, tortured Fireflea: Helpless and cornered.

Samus had to take her mind off her throbbing feet and arms, as she couldn't walk yet anyway, so she decided to ask the boy a few questions.

"I'm Samus. What's your name?"

"Caern."

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen cycles."

"What are you doing here?" She asked.

Caern hesitated a bit before answering, "I'm not sure. My whole family was on our merchant ship heading to the Ceres station to pick up supplies, when we were attacked by space pirates. They came and killed my parents, stole all of our cargo, and took me prisoner. They left my little sister on the ship to fend for herself," He bit his lip, trailing off. "After that I woke up here. They've been keeping me in a tank with a bunch of other creatures. Just now, one of them broke free and entered the access code to unlock all of the cages. He had been spying on the pirate scientists for quite some time, it seems.

"I took the opportunity: I got out of there as fast as I could. I ran down the hall, and didn't look back. I came in here to hide, and -- " Caern started to shake violently again, as he realized that he was still in peril.

Samus saw this, and decided that the situation was too dire to rest her limbs. She would have to move quickly. They didn't have much time before they would be found.

"Come with me." Samus half-ordered. She realized that this boy would not have the mental strength to get himself out alive: He would break down soon without proper leadership.

Samus dashed out the door, carefully surveying the hallway outside. She had no idea where to go, but she could not let Caern know that. Her confidence seemed to give him strength.

Samus did not realize it at the time, but this would not be the last time that she would have to sneak blindly around a Space Pirate lair. In fact, she would practically make a career of it.

Samus slowly started slinking down the corridor, Caern following close behind. Suddenly, they heard a sound that made their blood run cold: Footsteps, coming quickly in their direction!


	8. Death

_Another chapter! This one's kind of long, I just couldn't find an easy stopping place. I don't own Samus, and don't forget to leave a review!_

_Surferljb- Glad you like it! I'd be interested in reading that fic if you ever write it._

_Slythergrl- You don't understand it? You mean my fic, or a review that I left on one of your fics?_

_Pixiegirl- I absolutely love cliffhangers! I intend to end every chapter with one, so be prepared! And you'll see what the pirates want eventually: Be patient!_

**Death**

They had to get out of there, fast, and Samus knew it. She immediately surveyed the area and noticed the door behind them. Samus had no idea what was behind it, but anything was better than where they were: Capture would be inevitable.

Samus opened the door, still facing towards the direction of the footsteps, and jumped into the room backwards, tugging Caern in with her. They both sat, tense, listening to the footsteps just on the other side of the wall. They came closer and closer – Caern gave a small whimper. Samus shot him a look that he knew meant "_Shut up!_"

The footsteps had reached the door now, and for a few intense moments, they seemed to linger in front of the door. Then, to the relief of both humans, they receded and began to move away.

Both humans exhaled, glad that they were still intact. It was then that Samus turned around and saw the grisly scene behind her.

A pirate and some other creature both lay dead on the ground. The other creature was of a species that Samus did not recognize, but it was clear that it had been mauled pretty badly. The pirate had a makeshift knife in its chest, and the other creature seemed to be missing an arm. Caern looked at the bodies in shock, but Samus quickly realized that this could be used to their advantage.

She quickly relieved the pirate of both of his guns and his retractable wrist blade. She searched the other creature for weapons, but found none.

"What do you think happened?" Caern muttered, almost as if he didn't believe what he was seeing.

Samus hadn't thought much about it. She looked again, and said, "Not sure. It looks like this… thing, attacked the pirate with a homemade knife. It was probably a prisoner." Samus searched the body closer. "There are burn marks on its chest and one here on its leg," she said, pointing them out, "and they're probably from these guns," Samus suggested, indicating the guns she now held in her hands. "My guess is that this prisoner tried to make an escape, and this pirate tried to stop him. The pirate shot at him, and he came after him with this knife. The pirate relieved him of one of his arms, and then this guy stabbed the pirate in the chest. The pirate probably fell over then, judging by the way he's laying, and then shot this guy here, killing him," Samus pointed to a large hole in the thing's head.

Caern looked sick, and asked, almost as if he really didn't want to know, "How do you know all of that?"

"We have an entire subject on forensics at school," Samus answered matter-of-factly. Just then, the sound of footsteps was heard in the hallway again, this time they were running.

"Here!" Samus whispered, tossing a gun to Caern. He caught it, but looked like he didn't know what to do with it. "If we get into trouble," Samus said, "Don't hesitate to use it." Samus fastened the wrist blade to her left hand and retracted the blade. She held the gun with both hands: her right hand on the trigger, her left hand beneath the front of the gun. Simply holding the gun made a wave of calm go through Samus. She felt safer when she had a grip on the situation.

The sound of shooting was heard right outside the door: There was fighting going on outside. A shout was heard, and then a roar. It sounded like somebody had taken down a pirate. A thump was heard on the door to their room. Slowly, a pool of green liquid began to seep under the door.

"Get ready," Samus muttered, poising her finger on the trigger, aiming it at the door, poised for something to burst through. Caern followed suit numbly, as if he were in a trance. Samus doubted he would be much help if things got dangerous. She would have to rely on her chozo-taught reflexes in the event of a battle.

Judging by the sounds, the scuffle seemed to get more violent. There was a scream of pain and a roar of triumph. Samus grimaced: It sounded like the pirate won this time. After a few moments, there was silence again.

Carefully, Samus went to the door. She tried to open it slowly, but there seemed to be something pinning the door shut. She pushed a little harder and managed to open it enough to squeeze out.

She told Caern to stay where he was for now, and then slid out of the door, gun first. After she was confident that the hallway was safe for the moment, she relaxed her shoulders and lowered her gun. The thing that was keeping the door shut was the dead body of a space pirate. It had several wounds all over it, inflicted from a medium-level blaster.

The next thing that Samus noticed was another dead body. She was almost caught off guard to realize that it was a human, like her. She had not seen many humans before (except when she was very young) and she had now seen two others today. It was almost unbearable: She realized that there were others out there like her; there really was a species out there just like her.

Upon closer inspection, Samus saw that the human was clutching a medium-level blaster, probably stolen from a space pirate, and had several large, bloody wounds all over. There was a stab wound to his stomach, and several welts on his arms and legs. There were gaping wounds all over his arms and legs, probably caused from blasters. His face looked almost a combination of anger and peace: He had died fighting for his freedom, Samus was sure of it.

Coming to her senses, Samus picked up two more guns off of the bodies, and another wrist blade. She pushed the pirate's carcass away from the door and took the weapons in to Caern. She shoved one small gun through her belt, and handed the other gun and blade to Caern. He took them gingerly, as if he was afraid of them.

"Haven't you ever held a weapon before?" Samus asked, almost frustrated at his ignorance.

"Well, I did learn how to shoot from my father, but I've never killed anything before…" Caern muttered, as if having trouble thinking. Samus sighed. She had gone hunting many times in the past, but she had only killed dumb beasts. This _was_ different, although she hated to admit it. The creatures that they may have to kill have feelings. They have mothers and fathers, and they have lives. They were going to have to be willing to kill _intelligent_ beings if they wanted to escape.

Samus tried to hide her own inner-turmoil. "Here, you put on the blade like this," Samus strapped the blade to Caern's wrist, saying, "You make it come out with this button," Samus pointed to a long, green button on top of the module.

There was a long pause, and then Caern said, still seeming dazed, "Now what do we do?"

Samus thought about it, and then made a statement. "Well, anything's better than hanging around here, waiting to get caught." Caern nodded and sort of seemed to come back to his senses. It seemed that Caern needed a lot of time to process things.

Samus led the way out into the long, stretching hallway. They would have to find their way out without the aid of a map of any sort, so Samus just decided to pick a direction. Samus, with Caern following close behind made their way blindly down the passageway, hoping to find an exit. It would not be long until they were noticed, so they had to make quick ground.

-X-

Meanwhile, the chozo were combing the cliffs of Chozodia fervently, but no trace of Samus was found anywhere.

"Toré," Great Master Yurh muttered, obviously not looking forward to what he had to say, "It's time to call it a night. We can't keep looking for her. I can't let everyone else endanger themselves: it's dangerous here in the dark." Great Master Yurh sighed. "Obviously I can't force you to come back, but I would highly recommend it. You need your rest. We all do. We'll look for her some more tomorrow."

Toré looked around dejectedly, his heart aching. The light was dimming, and nobody had seen anything of Samus. It was beginning to look like a lost cause. Painfully, Toré turned around and started to head back to Chozodia. He would never give up, but he did see the wisdom of Great Master Yurh's suggestion. He would return tomorrow, with renewed zeal, and he _would_ find her, if it was the last thing he'd do.


	9. The Wild Below

_Here's the next chapter. As you can tell, I love cliffhangers. Mwahahaha! Oh, yeah, and leave a review when you're done! Or else…_

_Disclaimer: Storyline's mine, Samus isn't. Get it?_

**The Wild Below**

Samus ran down the corridor, trying to be as silent as possible. She held her gun in front of her, always at the ready. Caern was following behind her, doing the same. All seemed eerily silent: It made Samus nervous.

They came to a stairway leading down. Samus slowly started making her way down, always trying to keep her gun in front of her. When they reached the bottom, they immediately noticed the change in their surroundings: The walls were no longer paneled, but rock. The lighting came from several lamps built into the walls. Samus wearily swung her gun around, searching for enemies. Finding the path clear, she loosened up a bit.

Caern looked about, confused. "It's like we're in a cave or something," he said. "But I thought we were in some sort of building."

Samus thought for a moment. "I think it's been added on to these caves. It's like a base or something. I wonder exactly where we are…"

The conversation died off. They were faced with an apparent decision: left or right? The cave stretched off forever in each direction, so there was no obvious answer. After a moment, Samus turned left and began marching off in that direction. She had no idea where she was going, but as long as they were moving, it was better than standing still.

They walked in silence for a while, flinching at every sound, ready for trouble. Samus was painfully aware of the crunch her feet made against the stones. She heard Caern trudging behind her faithfully, asking no questions.

Samus was startled by a large red beetle that seemed to burst from the ground. It was about the size of her head, and had a long, sharp horn on its nose. "Zeb!" Samus gasped, firing at the insect. It immediately splattered, sending insect guts flying everywhere.

"What was that?" Caern asked, frightened.

Samus did not answer immediately. She stepped back, and what she saw made her heart sink. She had stepped on a Zeb tunnel. Zeb tunnels were the entrances and exits to the Zeb colonies. Zeb were large, beetle-like creatures with gigantic colonies. They were incredibly aggressive, and large numbers of them were enough to take even a chozo warrior down. They would attack, one by one, and seemingly never stop. No matter how many Zeb died, there always seemed to be more.

Another Zeb burst from the tunnel. Samus fired again, this time effectively covering herself in its innards. "They're Zeb." Samus replied to Caern, who seemed to be more nervous than ever. "We can't kill them all. We can only run."

As soon as Samus finished her sentence, another Zeb emerged from the tunnel, baring its horn, intending to gore the intruders. Samus fired again, and then, as if someone flipped a switch she took off in a dead run. Caern followed her, trying to keep up. It was obvious that Samus was in better physical shape than he. Of course, Samus had been training with the chozo, whereas Caern had not.

Another Zeb flew out of the tunnel. Seeing its quarry fleeing, it zoomed after Caern (him being closest) horn first. Caern could hear its wings whirring as it approached his back. He imagined its wicked horn digging into his flesh. His breathing became ragged through fear, and his footsteps fell heavy on the rocky floor. "Samus!" He gasped, trying to attract her attention before she disappeared into the distance.

Samus stopped on a dime and whirled completely around. She saw the Zeb's horn mere units from Caern. In one quick motion, Samus raised her gun, aimed, and fired. She managed to hit the Zeb squarely without hitting Caern. It seemed that the innumerable hours Samus had spent at the shooting gallery was finally paying off.

Caern ran past Samus, too frightened to stop. It didn't matter anyway, as another Zeb was emerging from the tunnel and began to look for the intruders. Samus shot at it and then wheeled around and took off in the opposite direction again.

After running non-stop, full-speed for several minutes, Samus noticed that Caern was getting tired. She was hardly feeling the effects of the run herself (she probably could have gone for at least an hour more) but she realized that Caern would not be able to hold up. She slowed down, and Caern did too, grateful for a rest. He placed his hands on his knees, panting. Samus looked behind her, and there was no sign of the Zeb anywhere. They had dodged a bullet.

Samus began to survey her surroundings again, as if she could gather some sort of clue about where she was from the rocks. There seemed to be nothing in sight but the tunnel, stretching as far as they could see in the dim light. She grimaced. She didn't like having no idea where she was, but she simply had to deal with it.

After a few minutes, Caern's breathing became more even, and he seemed to regain his composure. Samus looked to him, and he nodded, silently indicating that he was ready to begin moving again. They walked down the corridor again, still traveling in some unknown direction to who-knows-where.

After a few moments of silence, Caern spoke up, "Uh, listen, Samus," he began falteringly, "uh, you saved my life back there. Thank you." Samus shrugged. She was touched by his comment, but she did not show it. Her silence disturbed Caern a bit. He rubbed his arm nervously, as if there was something else on his mind that he wanted to say.

Whatever _was_ on his mind wasn't there for long, however. His thoughts were abruptly severed when a gigantic creature burst through the ground.

It had a huge, round, insect-like head with one humanlike eye set into the forehead. It had two, white, deadly pincers that appeared to work as mouthparts. It could easily devour both Caern and Samus if it truly wanted to. It was divided into several segments in such a way that it closely resembled a centipede. Each segment had several sharp spines on it.

The creature blinked a few times, as both Samus and Caern froze in fear. Then, seemingly having identified potential prey, the creature lunged for the two, its white pincers clacking hungrily.


	10. A Parent's Torment

_Well, next chapter's finally up. Sorry about the wait, life caught up to me (as did a little bit of writer's block!)_

_Aran's Apprentice- I'm not exactly sure what you mean about summarizing character traits. If you mean that I have the 'narrator' give bits of backstory in random places, it's simply because I wanted to answer a few holes in the Metroid storyline (such as, why are there chozo on Tallon IV?) I didn't feel that a 'scene' was necessary, because there wasn't enough information there to base a scene off of._

_About the short chapters, I quite like short chapters. It allows me to update more frequently and put in more cliffhangers. I suppose it's just a style thing._

_About Samus and Caern seeming younger than they are—I can't disagree with you more:P I think they seem perfect for their age. You're probably right, though that they seem young because so many other authors present teens as being much more level-headed and sure of themselves than they really are. I think I've given a pretty accurate depiction of teens. Just my opinion, though._

_I really like the Caern, too. I have a lot of plans with him: You'll see soon. And I do intend to answer what he was thinking about, but I won't reference that scene directly._

_And yes, that creature is in Zero Mission. In fact, you could follow Toré's adventures in Brinstar (you'll see) perfectly on a Zero Mission map._

_Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Keep those reviews comin'!_

**A Parent's Torment**

Toré wasted no time. At the break of dawn, he suited up immediately, and set out. He knew that Great Master Yurh would come with a search party for Samus later in the day. Toré could not wait that long. He felt his heart being tugged the way any parent would with a missing child: He had to find Samus.

Toré's mind wandered. He wondered where Samus could be. He knew that Samus was not safe outside of the borders of Chozodia. A horrible thought came to his mind: What if Samus did not survive the night? It was, after all, most dangerous at night. And a night had passed. Had something terrible happened to Samus?

This thought horrified him. He shoved it away, knowing he could not function properly if he dwelled on it. He knew that he had to find Samus as quickly as possible. The longer she was gone, the less chance she had of survival.

That thought lingered a moment.

In a sudden burst of energy, Toré scribbled a note out. He did not want Great Master Yurh to worry about him when he found his hut empty. He left the note pinned to his door, and then headed straight for the cliffs of Chozodia.

-X-

As Toré climbed down the cliff face, he looked for signs of where Samus might have gone. He reached the bottom and surveyed the area. He switched to his scan visor. Seeing nothing, he turned off the scan visor and started walking. Samus clearly was not here, so he just had to search.

After walking a distance, Toré came upon the entrance to the Brinstar mines. He thought for a moment. The mines had not been used for hundreds of cycles, perhaps even thousands. But there was no dust on the door. It did not have insect eggs or cocoons on it. It seemed to be in perfect condition.

His mind reeling, Toré fired once at the door with his blaster. It opened silently, and Toré peered inside. It was dark and dreary, and looked just like any abandoned brinstone mineshaft should look. He slowly entered the room and climbed down the steps that led to the elevator.

Just before he reached the elevator, he saw what he had come for: On the wall were several small mushrooms, feeding off of the nutrients in the rock. A few of them, however, were broken off. Somebody had been down here recently. Toré felt his heart leap as his hope was restored to him. It had to have been Samus: there were no other sentient creatures on Zebes other than the Chozo, and no chozo in his right mind would enter the Brinstar mines. No beast could have opened the door, either, as it required a blaster shot to open.

Toré opened the door leading to the arcane elevator that would take him into the heart of the Brinstar mines. He walked to the old platform and its control panel. He wondered for a moment if the elevator would even work, it being so old. He switched to his scan visor and scanned it.

"This elevator is old and worn. Functionality at 100. Elevator is relatively stable," the display read. Toré nodded, satisfied, and pressed the down button on the control panel.

Immediately the electromagnets surrounding the platform released. The heavy metal disk dropped down the shaft with no warning. Toré gave a cry of surprise as the floor fell from beneath him. After a few seconds the thrusters kicked in and a small jet on the bottom of the elevator slowed its decent, slamming Toré to the ground, shocking him.

After another second or two, the platform stopped moving, and Toré regained his posture. He surveyed his new surroundings. He was standing at the bottom of the mine, with a pillar on either side of him. Atop each pillar was a stone head. They made Toré feel uncomfortable, as it almost seemed like they were watching him.

He headed down the corridor, searching for more signs that Samus may have come this way. He found none upon reaching the next door.

He entered the next room, which seemed to be rather small. There was a ledge in the center of the room. Toré jumped on top of it and opened the next door.

He walked cautiously into the next room, his blaster at the ready. This was a long, open room full of discarded mining equipment. This was probably the place where the miners came to take breaks and such. Across the room was a pile of rocks, leading to the ceiling, blocking access further into the mines. It seemed there had been a cave-in here cycles ago.

There was an explosion of movement above Toré's head. He looked up, instinctively charging his blaster for a full-power shot. A skree was hurtling from the ceiling at Toré, its claws bared and ready to attack. Toré released the trigger on his blaster, sending a large ball of energy hurtling toward the creature. Upon impact the skree vaporized.

Skrees were bat-like creatures that would hang from the ceiling, silently waiting for prey to pass beneath them. When they spotted the potential prey, they would drop from the ceiling at incredibly high speeds. They were incredibly accurate, and they had to be, for if they missed, they could not stop in time to avoid the stone floor. Many were killed upon impact. Skrees could burrow through rock, and that's probably how they got in here in the first place.

Another skree burst from the ceiling, aiming for Toré's head. Toré jumped out of the way, and the skree crashed to the ground with a sickening crunch. It did not move any more.

Toré flipped on his thermal visor, searching for the heat signals of other skrees that could be hanging onto the ceiling. He found a few, and made short work of them with his blaster. Then he proceeded to check out the pile of rocks in front of him.

Toré almost turned back, when he saw a hole at the bottom of the pile. It wasn't quite big enough for him to crawl through, but maybe…

Toré activated his morph ball, and curled into a small sphere. The morph ball was the wonder of the chozo; it was the epitome of technological advancement. With it, any being could curl up into a perfect sphere and roll around as they wanted to. None but the most intelligent chozo had any idea exactly how it functioned, or how the being could still see while in morph ball mode, but it worked, and was very helpful for exploring small areas.

Toré rolled into the small hole and made his way through the pile of rocks, picking and choosing his path carefully, so as to not cause it to collapse on him. When he found his way out the other side, he returned to his upright position. He swung his blaster around, expecting some creature to burst out at him. Seeing nothing, he lowered his arm and took note of his surroundings.

He was clearly in the other half of the room. There was a large statue of a sitting chozo in front of him, and a door on a step above it. The chozo statue was in a sitting posture, with its arms outstretched. These statues were positioned throughout the mines. Some were used to hold important mining equipment, and some were equipped with special nodes in the hands that could heal an injured chozo miner. All the miner had to do was stand on the hands and enter morph ball mode.

This particular statue was used for healing injured miners. Toré could have used it if he wanted to, but he was not injured. His suit's shields were at 100. Toré marked it on his digital map, just in case he needed it later.

Toré walked up the step and opened the door. He was not expecting what he found behind it!


	11. Pipe Dream

_Lucky for you guys! You get two chapters this week. I don't own Samus, and please leave a review:D_

**Pipe Dream**

The centipede reeled back in surprise as Samus shot at its eye. It blinked hard, trying to regain its sight, its mouthparts clacking angrily. Samus turned around, intending to run back the way they came, away from the monster, but the creature leapt up and burrowed into the ceiling. It was so long that it had not fully pulled through the tunnel by the time it reemerged from the ceiling in a different place on the other side of them. It now had them surrounded. To their backs was one section of the centipede, blocking the way like a giant spiny pillar. In front of them was the centipede's head, protruding from the ceiling, swinging back and forth, looking for the perfect moment to attack.

Samus sprung into action, firing volleys from her gun at the creature's single eye. Caern was standing, still shocked, staring at the creature in complete horror. He was swaying back and forth slightly.

"Don't just stand there, do something!" Samus yelled helplessly, still firing a barrage at the thing. It didn't seem that Caern even heard her. Frustratedly, Samus pulled out her second gun and fired with both at the creature.

The creature, now in a good deal of pain and mostly blinded, screeched in fury. It closed its eye and lashed out blindly at the pair of humans. It missed. Samus had jumped back, but Caern just stood there, completely unflinching. It was as if he wasn't even there anymore.

The centipede blinked a few times. It didn't seem to be hurt by the gun anymore, now that it had its eye closed. It also couldn't see Samus and Caern, so it was blinking rapidly, trying to catch sight of one of them. Samus' guns weren't working anymore, so she dropped the one and ejected her wrist blade.

Samus took a deep breath, and charged the creature. It saw her, but too late. Samus managed to plunge the blade into the creature's eye as soon as it opened it. It squealed in pain, and recoiled. At first, Samus feared that it would retaliate and that she would not make it (being so close to the thing) but it did not. Instead, it burrowed into the floor. It took a few seconds, but the rest of its body followed, leaving the corridor quiet and empty again.

Samus looked over at Caern, and was surprised to see him lying on the ground, unconscious. He had a bloody scrape on his forehead. Samus realized that he must have passed out at the sight of the creature.

Samus ran over to him, and gently lifted his head, to see how bad his injury was. It wasn't too bad. It seemed he had hit his head pretty hard when he fell. She looked for a way to dress his wound, and, upon finding nothing else, she tore a bit off of the end of his sleeve and wrapped it around his head. He would be fine for now. The problem was that they were now sitting ducks. They could not move any further until he woke up, and Samus did not have the heart to leave him behind (although she did realize that he was slowing her down.) All that could be done now was to find a safe hiding spot and wait.

Samus saw some large pipes in the wall, so she went over to check them out. They were open, and large enough for somebody to crawl through. Samus paused a moment, and then crawled through the pipe a bit to check for wild creatures. Finding none, she crawled back out backwards and walked over to Caern. Her clothes were now covered in dirt from the pipe's walls.

She lifted Caern and carried him to the pipes. Caern was heavy, but Samus had been training with the chozo, and thus was strong enough to pick Caern up. She set him down, his head nearest the pipe, and slowly and carefully shoved him in. After he was in far enough, Samus crawled into the pipe backwards so that she could see out of the opening of the pipe and fire at any intruders if necessary.

At first, Samus was impatient and annoyed. She hated waiting around, especially when a space pirate could come around and find her (or a native creature could devour her) at any moment. She remained poised for what seemed like hours, her blaster at the ready.

After a while, though, Samus relaxed, and began to realize that this was a blessing in disguise. She wasn't sure how long she had been here, and she hadn't had much sleep. This was her opportunity.

It took some time, but Samus finally managed to drift off. She slept fitfully, waking many times, but it was better than nothing. After what seemed to be an eternity, Samus started to hear Caern move. She started to crawl out so that she could turn around and pull him out.

Unfortunately, Samus did not get to Caern before he woke up. He yelled in surprise at his inability to move, and he began to flail about, shouting in terror.

"Hey, hey! Shut up and calm down! You're in a pipe! I'm going to pull you out now," Samus called to him. He stopped screaming and flailing, but he was now breathing heavily.

"Samus? Is that you?" He said worriedly after a moment.

"Yes. Now just sit still for a moment: I need to grab your feet and slide you out." Samus crawled back into the pipe. She felt blindly for Caern's feet, and, upon finding them, she gave them a good tug.

It was considerably harder getting Caern out of the pipe than it was getting him in, mainly because it was easier to push into a confined space than it was to pull out of it. She eventually got him out, and stood up, slightly frustrated that it was so hard to do.

Caern slowly stood up, rubbing his sore head. He had banged it on the pipe after he had awoken, making the injury on his forehead even worse.

"What exactly happened to me?" He asked Samus.

"You fainted and hit your head on the floor. Now come on, we need to move," Samus urged. Caern obeyed, following her deeper into the cave.

It wasn't long until they hit a dead end. The whole cavern was walled up, and there were pipes running through the wall.

"Darn. I guess we'll have to turn back…" Caern muttered dejectedly. Samus swore.

"I'm not turning around. We're going through the pipes," She decided.

"_Through_ them? Are you sure? What if they are blocked off?" Caern looked nervously at the pipes.

"Then we inch our way back out of the pipe," Samus explained. Caern still looked nervous. "What? Don't tell me you're claustrophobic!"

"Well, no, not really, but…" Caern trailed off, biting his lip. Samus turned and faced the pipes.

"Do what you want, but I'm going through. You can follow me if you want to, or you can stay here. I don't really care," Samus announced coldly. She really _did_ want Caern to follow her. As annoying as she found his cowardice, his company did make her feel calmer. She knew that Caern would not want to be left alone in these caves, and would have to follow her eventually.

She was right: As soon as she started to crawl through the pipe, she heard Caern shuffling in behind her. She surprised herself when she let out a sigh of relief. She could have done without him, couldn't she?

Samus was glad to find that the pipe did indeed go all the way through the wall. She stood up and waited for Caern to emerge. He pulled himself out of the pipe, and got up.

Samus checked out the room. Directly in front of them was a large stone, and ahead of that were some huge mushrooms. They walked around the stone and headed towards the mushrooms. Samus glanced back at the stone for a moment, and did a double-take. The stone was not a stone at all!


	12. Pirates

_New chapter! I know, it's really short, but I'm struggling with keeping my schoolwork under control. And the writer's block isn't helping any. ;)_

_Anyway, I don't own Metroid. Get over it and leave a review._

**Pirates**

Toré jumped back. He was not expecting the sight that greeted him from the other side of the door at all. There stood an equally astonished space pirate.

The two stared at each other dumbly for a second, not knowing exactly what to do. Then the pirate whipped out his blaster and fired a volley of blasts at Toré.

Without his suit, he'd be seriously hurt by the blaster shots hitting him, but the chozo had the most advanced technology in the galaxy. The suit was able to resist a lot of normally catastrophic damage by generating a shield from a series of batteries called energy tanks. Once all energy tanks had been drained of their energy, the suit was susceptible to damage. The energy tanks were rechargeable, and each tank held 99 units of energy. Interestingly enough, many guns and blasters' power were measured by how many units of energy they took from a chozo energy tank in one shot.

Toré acted immediately. He charged his power beam to full power, and then fired at the pirate. Unfortunately for the pirate, the space pirates had not yet developed the advanced shielding necessary to sustain multiple blaster shots. The pirate stumbled back, injured, but not killed by the blast. After shaking its head clear for a moment, it again raised its blaster to fire at Toré.

Toré jumped to the side, evading the blaster shots. He charged his blaster again, and fired a second time. This time the shot connected with the pirate's head, knocking him over. It did not get back up.

Toré's head was reeling. Why were there pirates here on Zebes, deep in the Brinstar mines? What did they want here?

Then a horrifying thought crossed into Toré's mind: What if they had gotten Samus?

Toré shuddered, forcing himself to remain thinking logically. He returned to the restoration statue in the previous room, recharging his suit's energy tanks, and then returned to the room where he had met the pirate. He realized that it was more of a mine shaft that he was standing at the bottom of. The walls were covered with large ledges, and therefore would not be hard at all to climb.

Toré began to make his way up the shaft. He noticed the many rippers flying around, and made a conscious effort to avoid them. Rippers were little turtle-like creatures with impenetrable exoskeletons. They fly about in simple patterns, taking in nutrients from the air. They do not eat, but they will not alter their course of flight, either. If anything gets in the way, they will push it out of the way or bite it until it moves. Seeing as Toré was in a mine shaft, one push from a ripper could send him hurtling down to the bottom of the shaft with potentially dangerous results.

After climbing for quite a while, Toré came upon a door on the left of the shaft. He had two choices: he could take the door and find out where it went, or he could continue up the shaft. After a moment's thought, he decided to take the door.

He noticed a skree on the ceiling, and shot it. He used his thermal visor to find a few more and took them out too. He then proceeded to enter the room. It was small, and seemed to be a dead end, but upon closer inspection, Toré saw that some of the rock near the bottom of the wall in front of him was actually simply packed soil.

Toré curled into his morph ball. He rolled over to the soil, and laid a bomb. The morph ball was equipped with two types of defense, just in case a chozo needed to defend himself while in morph ball mode. One was a small timed bomb, which could injure only small organisms. When this bomb was laid and the user remained in morph ball mode, sitting on top of the bomb when it blew up, the morph ball would pop up a bit from the force, but not be injured in any way. The second weapon was a super bomb, which had devastating effects, often decimating entire rooms.

Just as Toré had expected, the bomb blasted out a small hole in the soil, just big enough for him to fit through. Toré laid several more bombs in this fashion, forming a small tunnel for himself to fit through. He eventually made it out to the other side of the wall. He uncurled from morph ball mode to be attacked by a couple of skrees. He made quick work of them and surveyed his surroundings.

There was a door directly in front of him, and a small passageway leading gradually up off to one side. He tried the door, but found that it only led to a small storage room. He moved to the passageway, and sized it up. He could have crawled through it on his hands and knees, but he instead decided to use his morph ball. It was quite often the easiest and fastest mode of transportation when exploring caves.

Gradually the pathway widened, and Toré returned to his regular form. The path traveled upwards in a winding direction for a while, and then suddenly became straight. Toré was startled by a few more skree, but managed to remain unharmed by them.

After walking for a few minutes, the pathway stopped. There was a wide hole going straight up for a short distance. Toré would have to do some climbing. He approached the wall and tested for some good footholds. He made his way upwards, reaching the top in no time.

As Toré neared the top and began to crawl over the edge, he heard a sound that made his heart jump: A surprised roar, and then the cocking of a blaster.


	13. Realization

_Sooooo sorry that I didn't update in forever. It was the end of the school year, and I had to study for finals, and finish up those last-minute projects ect… Anyway, I've updated now, and updates should come a little more regularly during the summer._

_Aran'sApprentice- You'll see Caern's got some redeeming qualities, especially later on. Be patient. :D_

_On with the fic!_

**Realization**

Samus stood looking at a statue of a figure that she knew all too well. It was a chozo, sitting down, arms outstretched, as if it was asking for something. Samus looked in wonder at the perfectly chiseled face, so kind, yet serious. Awestruck, she walked over to the statue, and ran her hand across the cold stone.

"What is it?" Caern asked from behind her, his voice filled with wonder. Samus did not answer. She was busy examining the perfect piece of art.

"He's wonderful…" Samus murmured, still in disbelief. "I wonder what it is he wants…" Suddenly Samus was no longer the strong image of an adult that she was trying to be. She was now that little girl, watching the illusion of the butterfly, in complete wonderment.

"Samus, what is it?" Caern repeated. Suddenly Samus snapped back to her usual self.

"Ahem, well, it's clearly a statue of a chozo… but as to what it's doing here, I have no idea…" Samus thought for a moment. "No, wait! Now that I think about it, I remember learning about something like this at school. They were used by miners for things."

"So, we're in a mine?" Caern asked, trying to understand it all.

Samus hadn't arrived at this thought yet. "We must be. But how? We just left a space pirate hideout." Samus suddenly lit up like a light. "This changes everything. It means that we're in a mine on Zebes. The only mine that I know of is the Brinstar mines. That means that I'm not far from home!"

Samus was suddenly excited. She would be able to make it back! She looked at Caern. He gave a weak smile, but it quickly faded. Samus realized that Caern was very far from his home. He had little chance of getting back. She quickly sobered up.

"Caern…" Samus said, for the first time showing sympathy for the cowardly boy. He looked like he was going to cry.

"I'll be alright." He said weakly. "Let's just move on."

Samus nodded, and turned away from the statue. She took the lead again in silence, walking back down the corridor towards some giant mushrooms. Not pausing to glance at the unusual fungus, the two continued walking for quite some time.

Eventually, they came to a door. Samus opened it and began to enter the room, but gasped and staggered backwards.

"What is it?" Caern shouted, ready to run.

"See for yourself." Samus said, regaining her composure. Slowly, Caern went through the door. After a moment, he quickly came scrambling back again.

"What are we gonna do?" Caern muttered, bewildered.

"Well," Samus thought for a moment, "We'll just have to climb down."

"What? Are you crazy?" Caern screeched. "That cliff is almost vertical! We'll never be able to get down alive."

"We have no choice. We can't turn around now." Samus' answer was blunt. She walked back to the edge of the cliff, and looked down. She saw a few small creatures flying around far down, and a couple of ledges big enough to stand on comfortably.

"Follow me," Samus said, securing the guns in her belt. "The first gap seems to be the longest climb. Once we reach that ledge," Samus indicated the nearest outcrop, "It should be pretty easy to make our way to the bottom."

"Samus," Caern muttered, his voice wavering, "I can't do this. I won't. What if I fall?"

"Don't."

Samus carefully lowered herself over the edge, searching the wall for hand and footholds. Painfully, slowly, Samus scaled the sheer wall of the cliff, unit by unit, her mind focused on the task at hand. Her muscles bulged as she tried to make her way down. Many times she had to crawl back up the wall to find a better path to crawl down.

Samus finally made it to the ledge after what seemed like a lifetime. It was nerve-wracking: One wrong move could be the end. She let out a sigh of relief when her shoes landed on the outcropping.

"Alright Caern. Now it's your turn," Samus urged. Caern whimpered and dropped to his hands and knees and inched his way toward the edge of the cliff. He peered down, and immediately decided that the task was impossible.

"I'm not doing this, Samus. I have to go back." Caern immediately distanced himself from the edge.

"Caern! You _must_ come! We _cannot_ go back!" Samus' voice was urgent.

"No! No, Samus! No! I can't do it!"

"Caern, stop telling yourself that! You have to believe in yourself."

"Samus, I'm going to get myself killed. I… I can't…"

Samus sighed, frustrated at Caern's lack of willpower. How could she make him understand? They can't give up now. They had to keep going, no matter how hard the situation became.

Overcome with weariness, and the fact that she may have to leave her new friend and only company behind, Samus slumped to the ground. A single tear dropped to the dry rock. She tried to be strong, but everything was beginning to become too much for her. She pulled her knees to her chest and buried her face in her arms.

Just then, a small number of pebbles rained down on Samus' head. She looked up to see Caern clutching the cliff face. Samus got to her feet and looked up, joy suddenly flowing through her being.

That joy suddenly turned to horror as the foothold beneath Caern's left foot broke from the wall. The stone came hurtling down, and almost hit Samus on the head.

"Oh! Oh, help me Samus!"


	14. Loss

_Here's the next chapter! Hope you enjoy it!_

_PixieGirl13- Yeah, Caern's slowly building up some self-confidence throughout the story. I guess anyone would, spending that much time with Samus. And that sounds something Naoimi would do:P Here's your update!_

_Aran'sApprentice- What's going to happen? If I told you that, we wouldn't have much of a story left now, would we?_

_CDBuder- I actually do own all but Super Metroid of the Metroid games. I'm simply writing this fic in such a way that you don't really need to know what happens in the games to understand it._

_On to the story!_

**Loss**

"Hang on, Caern! Try to hang on!" Samus called urgently up to her friend. Caern shouted something incoherently as he frantically tried to find another foothold. There was nothing Samus could do to help him with this: She could only stand and watch.

Caern managed to stabilize himself again, and stayed still for a few minutes to catch his breath. He still had a long way to go yet, and the last thing he wanted to do was fall.

"Come on, Caern, you've got to keep moving! Your muscles won't hold long enough for you to just sit there," Samus urged. Caern tried to keep moving, but it seemed that wherever he moved to, the rock face would crumble away.

"You're panicking! You need to keep calm, or you'll never make it!" Samus shouted. Caern took a few deep breaths, and tried again. He slowly managed to make his way down the face of the cliff, losing his footing a few times, but always regaining it eventually.

As Caern was nearing the ledge, the cliff face broke off again. This time, both of his hands came loose, sending him flying backwards. Samus shouted in surprise as he landed with a loud thud on the ledge. She turned down to look at him, and realized that he had the wind knocked out of him. After a few seconds, Caern began gasping for air, his lungs protesting angrily.

"It's okay, it's okay," Samus murmured, "You'll be okay in a few seconds." Sure enough, Caern managed to retake control of his breathing and sit up. Both humans let out a sigh of relief.

After a few moments of silence to catch their breath and gather their thoughts, Samus decided to plan out their next move. She looked over the edge and saw another ledge not too far away below them. There was a small spiny creature sleeping on it. Samus pulled a gun from her belt and fired at the thing. It was destroyed.

"Easy enough," Samus remarked to herself. "Come on," she said to Caern, "We can jump to the next ledge." Caern hesitated. "Don't tell me you're afraid to! You just scaled that huge cliff, and now you can't jump a few units?" Samus looked away, disgusted. What did she care? She could just leave him behind. She took a few steps back and then gracefully leapt to the next ledge, landing on her feet.

Samus waited a few moments for Caern to come, and when he didn't, she decided to move on. She saw another ledge within jumping distance with a few more of those spiny creatures on it. She pulled both guns and aimed at them, hoping it would be just as easy to kill these ones as the first one.

Just then, Caern came sailing down from above, trying to land on the ledge. Instead, he overshot the ledge by a few units and just barely grazed it with his boots. He slipped off the other side, screaming.

Without thinking, Samus dropped both guns into the abyss and grabbed Caern's wrists. She was lurched forward with his momentum, but managed to plant her feet and haul Caern back up onto the ledge.

Both Samus and Caern had their hearts pounding like crazy, adrenaline running through their veins. Samus had saved Caern's life again.

"Samus, thank you so much! I— I don't know how to thank you enough— I…" Caern continued to gush on, filled with gratitude. Samus immediately regretted dropping the guns.

"Okay, I get it. Shut up," Samus snapped. She was frustrated both at Caern's incompetence and their general bad luck. She really couldn't blame him, as much as she wanted to, because Caern was not raised by Chozo and therefore could not even come close to keeping up with Samus. Nevertheless, she needed somebody to be angry at and the only other one around was Caern.

"Hand me one of your guns," Samus ordered Caern, who was still shocked by Samus' bluntness. Dumbfounded, he pulled one of the guns from his belt and handed it to Samus. She aimed the gun at the creatures on the ledge and fired a few shots. They were easy targets, and shooting them actually made Samus feel a little better.

"You're going to have to jump again," Samus told an uneasy Caern. She quickly landed on the ledge and turned around to face Caern. She wanted to be able to catch him if need be.

Caern tried not to appear afraid, but he could not help but show it as he tried to jump to the ledge. This time he made it, but Samus had to catch him and stabilize him so that he did not fall on his face. They followed this same procedure several times and made their way down the shaft.

After a few ledges, they saw a door across the shaft on a short ledge. They decided not to risk jumping the entire length of the shaft and continued downwards. Shortly after seeing the first door, they found another one, this one close enough to jump to. Upon reaching the door, Samus opened it and they gazed into the room beyond.

Both of them were shocked to see that the floor was covered in a yellow, slightly bubbling liquid, with little 'islands' here and there like stepping stones across a lake.

"What _is_ that stuff?" Caern asked.

Forgetting her anger, Samus replied, "I think its acid. We've used stuff like it in chemistry class to dissolve metal." Both humans' stomachs flipped. One wrong move could mean a slow and painful death.

"Well, we don't have any choice. We'll have to cross. Look: The first jump will be the longest one, and then after that we should be able to basically step across," Samus noted. "Let's not dwell on it." With that, Samus jumped to the first stone. It was the widest of the islands, and both she and Caern would be able to fit on it easily.

"Come on! Don't think about it, just jump," Samus urged Caern. He took a deep breath, stepped back a few steps, and then leapt towards the first island.


	15. Torture

_Thought you might want to find out what was happening with Toré, so I decided to leave you in a little more suspense. Muahaha! I was working through a bit of writer's block for the first half of this chapter, so if it's a little choppy, that could be why._

_PixieGirl- I wasn't really going to reveal any more of Caern's past with the exception of what was said in chapter 7. That's a good idea, though. Perhaps I'll do a mini-fic about it. I'll see what I can do._

_Thanks to all of my reviewers! Keep 'em a-comin'! On with the chapter!_

**Torture**

Landing on both feet, Caern balanced himself on the slippery rock. Wordlessly, Samus nodded and turned to the next rock. They carefully hopped from rock to rock, making their way to the other end of the room. Upon reaching the door, Samus pulled her gun and opened it.

It was a short hallway, with another door on the other end. The walls were simply bare rock. Wasting no time, Samus continued to the next room, Caern close behind.

This room was fairly nondescript as well, although a good deal larger than the one they were exiting. It seemed to be rather empty, but there were a few large ledges high above their heads.

Because this room was a great deal more open and less protected, the humans proceeded with caution. After taking a few steps, Samus paused.

"Do you hear that?" Samus whispered. Caern looked around with a puzzled look on his face. He shook his head. Samus grimaced, and continued through the room. After a few more steps, she paused again. "Now do you hear it?" Caern listened hard. After a moment, he nodded slowly.

"It's like a buzzing or something…" Caern was trying to locate the direction the sound was coming from. Samus took a few steps farther. Both humans were now standing in the center of the room.

"Look! Up there!" Samus hissed, pointing to one of the ledges far above their heads. Sure enough, there was a large blue blob sitting upon it. There were innumerable small creatures flying around it. Samus clutched her gun tighter. Caern shuddered.

"Let's move on," Caern muttered, not taking his eyes off of the thing. Samus nodded, also still staring at the enormous blob. Slowly, they started to walk towards the door.

Samus, not watching where she was going, tripped over a rock. She fell to the ground, scraping her knees and arms. Even worse, the jolt caused her to fire her gun once, the noise echoing throughout the room.

Cursing, Samus got up and looked back up to the blob. The buzzing noise was getting louder, and the number of creatures flying around it seemed to have tripled in size.

"It's a hive! Let's get out of here!" Samus shouted frantically, realizing that they were in serious trouble. Caern had no trouble obliging, tearing his eyes from the hive to run for the door. The buzzing above them became angrier, and the sound of it was now echoing throughout the whole room, surrounding the humans.

Samus fired her gun and opened the door. Upon reaching it, however, they were met with a surprising sight. On the other side was an equally shocked space pirate holding a large jar full of small insects. Samus, Caern, and the pirate all stared at each other for a moment.

After a second or two, the pirate noticed the swarm of insects flying rapidly in their direction and dropped his jar and ran the other way. The jar shattered on the rocky ground, sending insects crawling around everywhere. Samus and Caern paid no heed to them, and instead followed the pirate for dear life. There was another door not too far ahead that the pirate was now leaving through.

Samus and Caern plowed ahead, the swarm at their backs, always getting closer. Samus had to re-open the door, as it had shut behind the pirate. Samus and Caern gasped at what they found beyond this door.

It was another room full of acid. The islands were bigger in this one, and the acid was more in pools than filling the whole room, but it was still treacherous. The pirate they had met before was flailing around in a larger pool, roaring in pain. The humans quickly entered the room, and Samus managed to close the door behind them without any insects flying through.

"Come on, let's go!" Samus yelled, still running on adrenaline. She was going to leave the pirate behind, having no compassion for their kind.

"But Samus, we can't just leave him!" Caern muttered, almost tearfully. The pirate was screaming in agony now, trying to claw his way out of the acid. Samus looked down at the creature, for the first time seeing it as a living being rather than a cold-hearted killer. She looked into its pleading eyes, its pain-stricken face, its claws, grasping at the side of the pool in torture, trying with all its might to escape the deadly liquid.

Sighing, her eyes filling with tears, Samus reached down and tugged on the creature's arm. "Help me!" She called to Caern. He immediately grabbed the creature's other arm and helped her pull the thing out of the pit.

The look on the pirate's face was beyond description. It was a mix of extreme gratitude and sheer confusion. Why would they bother to help him? The pirate had some rather nasty looking burns on its lower torso and legs, but it looked survivable.

Samus swallowed hard. "We've got to get moving. I've never met a trustworthy pirate." Samus stood up and distanced herself from the creature. "He'll be okay. I'm sure his kind patrols these halls all the time. Another reason we have to get out of here." Caern nodded, standing up. They continued to the next door, carefully avoiding the pools of acid.

Before going through the door, however, Caern glanced back at the pirate. It still had a bewildered look on its face, as if it had no idea why they had helped it. Sighing, Caern turned and followed Samus.


	16. Burning Hope

_I couldn't stop writing. :D That's good for all of you guys. Two chapters in one night! In this chapter, you get to see a slightly different side of Samus. Enjoy!_

**Burning Hope**

After traveling down another shaft and through a few more rooms with pools of acid in them, Samus and Caern came upon a small room with a perfectly circular, green disk lying flat in the floor. There was some sort of control panel sitting next to the disk. Samus walked over to the control panel and blew ages of dust from it. Coughing, she read the words on the panel.

"To Norfair." There was a single red button on the panel under the words.

"What does _that_ mean?" Caern wondered aloud.

"We learned about this in history class," Samus said, "You know how I told you that we're in Brinstar, a deep underground mine? Well, Norfair was a sort of blacksmithing area because of its extreme heat and pools of molten lava."

Caern blinked. "Don't tell me we're going _there_… are we?"

"Are you kidding?" Samus almost shouted, "Norfair used to be a heavily used area by the chozo. That means that there must be a direct transport from there to the surface, right?"

Caern swallowed hard. "So we're heading out into an area filled with molten lava?"

"Well, look on the bright side. There can't be too many hostile life forms living in an environment like that, can there?" Samus urged. "Come on, we're almost outta here! I can practically feel it! Get on the disk."

Nervously, Caern stepped to the center of the green disk. Samus pressed the button and did the same. After a second or so, the disk began to slowly move down the shaft. It took several minutes, but the disk finally made it to the bottom of the shaft. Samus and Caern stepped off, and immediately noticed the increase in temperature. It was swelteringly hot.

"Let's hope we don't have to stay here too long," Caern muttered, wiping his forehead which was already sweating. Samus nodded in agreement. The two walked down a short flight of steps and came to a hallway leading in two opposite directions.

"Which way?" Caern asked. Samus had no idea, so she simply picked a direction. Unfortunately, the room they stepped into was filled with molten lava. There were several platforms built sticking out of the lava, but it appeared as if the bridges to these platforms had long been destroyed. The platforms were not at all far from each other: A human could step from platform to platform with relative ease, but tripping could be fatal, as it could easily mean dropping into the bubbling, glowing river of molten lava below.

To make matters worse, it seemed that a number of small, flaming creatures had taken up residence on the platforms. They each had three eyes, six stubby, crablike legs, and, most notably, flames shooting from the tops of their heads. They appeared to come in two colors: Orange and purple.

Samus whipped out her gun to see how difficult these things were going to be. She took aim at one on a faraway platform, and fired with perfect accuracy. The blast from the gun seemed to have explosive effects on the creature, as, upon contact, there was a large ball of fire and a loud boom. The creature seemed to have vaporized.

Seeing that the explosion had no effect on the platform, Samus shot another one, with the same results. Quickly picking off the rest of the critters, Samus noticed another possible menace. Quite similar to the first creatures, this creature appeared to be on fire, and not really care. However, unlike the other creatures, this one was flying around.

Aiming again, Samus fired at the burning insect. It burst in an even larger explosion than the other creatures had, actually taking out a chunk of the ceiling.

"Oops. Better not do that again," Samus mumbled to herself. Caern was simply watching her, dumbfounded. The other flying creatures were startled by the explosion and flew away. "They'll be back, so let's hurry," Samus advised, "Oh, and don't look down."

Samus leapt to the first platform, and quickly stepped across to the next one. She was almost surprised to find that Caern was following right behind her, sweating bullets, but still coming. She smiled, overjoyed at Caern's display of self-confidence.

They carefully picked their way along the platforms and finally made it to the other side of the room, and gratefully stepped off the platforms and back onto solid ground. Samus opened the door and peered at the room beyond.

"Not another shaft…" Caern groaned. His muscles were aching and he couldn't take another long climb.

"Come on, let's go up this time: It looks easier," Samus mumbled, not too happy herself to see another climb. As much as she would never admit it, she was beginning to tire, too.

Both humans slowly made their way up the face of the rock. It was, by no means, the hardest of their climbs, but both were getting tired, and they didn't really have the motivation any more.

Upon reaching a ledge, both humans stopped. "Let's rest here," Samus sighed. Caern nodded his head wearily, plopping himself down against the wall. Samus sat down beside him. There was a long, uncomfortable silence.

"Uh, Caern?" Samus almost whispered.

"Hm?"

"I… I have to apologize to you. I must admit, I haven't been very nice."

Caern was silent.

"Uh, I know that I've been trained by the chozo, so there's really no way I could expect you to keep up," Samus stammered, feeling very weak and small. "And, I think that without you, I'd have gone crazy without someone to talk to. But, it was selfish of me to have not seen things from your point of view. You need support, too. That is to say… you've been putting up with me throughout this whole thing. And you've always been nice to me, even when I haven't really been that nice to you."

More silence.

"And… I'm sorry."

Caern turned his head to face Samus. He put out his hand. "Friends?"

Samus smiled, still feeling awkward, but feeling better that a heavy burden had been lifted from her heart. "Friends." She said, shaking his hand.

"Now, let's see if we can get out of here," Caern announced, getting up. He seemed to have completely changed. It was as if he hadn't even seen _himself_ as someone worth being around until this very moment. Samus' kind apology had shown him that he _was_ just as important as a human being as anyone else. He was ready to move on.

The two humans continued up the shaft, finding that what they had been looking for was not far away at all. On another ledge at the top of the shaft was another green disc, exactly like the one they had seen before. Samus read the control panel.

"To Chozodia! This is it, Caern! This is what we've been searching for!" Samus was actually leaping up and down with joy. Without hesitation, Samus pressed the button on the panel, and the elevator started to rise.


	17. Home

_Next chapter! It's not the end yet. I've still got a lot in store for Samus and Caern before it's all over! Muahahaha!_

_PixieGirl-Haha! Do I ever have more to do to the humans… You wait and see!_

_Warior- Home free? We'll just have to see about that…_

_Well, on to the story, and don't forget to leave a review:D_

**Home**

"This isn't Chozodia!" Samus cried in despair as the elevator came to a stop. They stood in another small, underground room. The walls were covered with lichens and a foul-smelling fungus.

The room was silent and heavy with the feeling of defeat. The silence was only broken by the distant sound of water dripping somewhere in the cave. For what seemed like hours, the two humans simply stood there, trying to figure out what to do next. They were so close…

"Who knows where we are now…" Samus muttered disgustedly.

"Guess we'd better move on," Caern said dejectedly. Samus nodded in agreement, her hope squelched.

Emotionless, Samus opened a door. Her reaction to the next room's contents was simply a sigh. She saw a tangled web of metal pipes, many of them broken or burst in places. The entire floor was flooded, and there were some rather large, menacing looking fish swimming about.

Then something sparked Samus' hope once again. She realized that this must be a long-forgotten sewer system used by ancient chozo. This used to be just under the old Chozodia. New Chozodia was built only a short distance North of this area after an earthquake and wildfire ravaged the city.

"Caern! We're really close! Look, on the other side of the room is a door: I'm sure that it will lead us to Chozodia!" Samus shouted, excited again. Caern looked up, in a bit of disbelief that their journey was coming to an end.

"We have one last trial, I think," Samus announced happily. "We simply have to crawl across these pipes to the other side. Once we've done that, we're home free!" Caern gave a slight smile, but it quickly faded. He had no home anymore.

Trying to take his mind off of home, Samus encouraged him, "Come on! Let's just do it, and get it over with." With that, Samus jumped to a large, horizontal pipe and started to shimmy across. Caern followed her, noiselessly concentrating on staying balanced.

Caern realized that before he had met Samus, he never would have even tried this. He would have turned around, and went back into the cave. He wouldn't have even made it that far without Samus' guidance.

His thoughts were abruptly interrupted as he quickly slid from the top of the pipe to the bottom. He was now hanging upside-down, clinging to the bottom of the pipe with all his might.

"Caern!" Samus yelled. "Hang on!" She frantically tried to find a way she could help him. She glanced down, and noticed that the fish she had seen swimming in the water were circling around the spot Caern was dangling above. Cursing, Samus realized that they were skultera: Large, plated, carnivorous fish, powerful enough to tear though thin metal.

Clutching the pipe with her legs, Samus sat up and pulled her gun from her belt. She knew it would have little effect on the skulteras' thick armor, but it may be enough to deter them for some time.

She fired madly, sending water into the air. When it cleared, the skultera were swimming away. They would be near, but for the time being, they were keeping their distance.

"Swim, Caern!" Samus commanded.

"What?"

"Just do it."

Taking a deep breath, Caern let go of the pipe. Immediately, two of the skultera swam towards him.

"Swim for the door, Caern!" Samus shouted, firing insanely at the open-jawed fish. Caern did his best. Samus followed him on the pipe, shooting at any fish that got too near. Slowly, Caern made his way to the door. He quickly pulled himself up, his clothes soaking wet.

Samus jumped down to the platform. Both she and Caern were breathing heavily from the experience. "We… We made it," Samus said between breaths. They both turned to face the door. Eager with a longing to be back home, Samus opened it.

This door led to a long tunnel. They slowly walked down the dark tunnel, seemingly never reaching an end. After a while, the walls began to close in on them. The darkness was overbearing.

Samus was startled when she ran into a ladder, nearly losing her balance. Both humans looked up the tunnel.

"This could be it!" Samus exclaimed, bursting at the seams with excitement at being home. She quickly started to climb the ladder. Caern followed behind her.

At the top, she pressed into the ceiling. With a little effort, she managed to lift it and slide it aside. She found herself emerging from a manhole cover in a street in Chozodia.

"I'm home!"


	18. Chaos

_Next chapter is up! There's a lot of dialogue in this one. You'll just have to bear with me. This fic is far from over!_

**Chaos**

"Where is everybody?" Samus muttered to herself, feeling a knot form in her stomach. The streets were empty. All of the lights were out in all of the houses. Samus and Caern walked down the lonely streets, looking for a hint as to where everybody was.

Feeling her heart pound harder, Samus began to run to her house where she lived with Toré. Flinging open the door, she found that it was completely empty. She ran throughout the different rooms, finding nobody.

"Toré!" Samus called, now worried sick. "Where are you?"

"What's going on, Samus?" Caern asked, distressed. Samus didn't seem to notice him. She didn't seem to notice anything. She was walking around in a fog, completely numb. After a few seconds, Samus ran out the door. Caern followed her.

"Where are we going?" Caern yelled to Samus, who was quickly distancing herself. He followed her to a large building in the center of the town. Upon reaching the huge double doors, he was met with a strange sight.

Hundreds of bird-people sat in a stadium-like building, all watching a small figure standing in the center of the stadium. He was speaking to all of them.

"… The council and I have voted, and we have decided that it would be in our best interests to go to war!" The stadium immediately went abuzz. Samus, who was standing in an isle, gasped. The chozo go to war? Why, there had only been three wars in chozo history before, and two of them had been civil wars.

"Now," The speaker continued, "I realize that this may come as a shock to all of you, but the pirates pose too much of a threat to simply ignore. You may or may not recall their attack on the space colony K2-L many cycles ago, obliterating all sentient species on that planet. The space pirates are a formidable opponent, not to be taken lightly.

"Their recent attack on Chozodia has left all of us shaken. Some of us have lost loved ones," At these words, Samus' heart jumped, "some of us good friends, and some of us have lost our jobs. We must not lose our hope. The pirates _will_ come again, and this time we _will _be ready.

"At least at first, all military enlistment will be voluntary. You need not fight if you don't want to. However, we need as much help as we can get to drive out the pirates. We know from their violent history that the pirates will not leave until they have been beaten, or they have attained their goal. In this case, their goal seems to be the complete destruction of the chozo people and all they have worked for.

"We have learned from an intercepted pirate message that they are doing experiments on the natural species of our planet. They are searching for the perfect biological weapon, and they are willing to stop at nothing to find it. We fear that they will not exclude the chozo people from their sick experimentations." Again, the stadium went atwitter.

"It will be dangerous, but we will be assembling an army to start an offensive attack on the space pirates' base itself. It appears that they have stationed themselves somewhere in the long-abandoned mines of Brinstar. It is also believed that the pirates have positioned themselves in a series of caves to the West of Brinstar called Tourian.

"The pirates' weaponry is advanced, and their soldiers are savage. Anyone who signs up to help with the offensive will face grave peril. You must truly be dedicated to the task and willing to lay down your lives for Chozodia if you decide to accept this task. Before jumping into any decisions, you must carefully consider your options.

"There will be a desk outside as you leave. I ask all of you to sign up for some position in the war effort, be it on the front line, or a supporting role. The chozo there will help you get started. I thank you all for being here, and I hope you all are able to make wise decisions."

Slowly, the chozo began to emerge from their seats, each talking to their neighbors about what they had just heard. Samus ran about, Caern barely managing to stay behind her. She was darting here and there, looking for Toré. When she could not find him anywhere, she ran down to the center of the stadium and approached the speaker.

"Master Yurh," Samus said, panting. He turned away from gathering his papers together and faced Samus.

"Why, Samus! You're alive!" He exclaimed, astonished. "We had thought the pirates had caught you."

"They did," Samus explained, "But we escaped."

"We?" Master Yurh inquired.

"Oh! Yes, me and Caern, another human the pirates were holding captive," Samus told him. Seeing Caern standing back, she ran to him, grabbed his arm, and brought him to Master Yurh. "Master Yurh, this is Caern. Caern, this is Master Yurh. He is the leader of the chozo people, with whom I have grown up." Caern gave a bashful smile, and Master Yurh nodded to him.

"Samus," Master Yurh started regretfully, "I am afraid that Toré went to look for you several days ago. He has not returned since." Samus looked at him, her heart ripped to shreds. "I am truly sorry…"

After a moment, Samus' face became stern again. "I am going to find him," She said, gripping the space pirate gun in her belt. If the situation weren't so grave, Master Yurh would have laughed.

"Samus, you can't possibly expect to storm a space pirate base, looking for your father with only a gun and a wrist blade," He explained regretfully.

"I don't care! I'll find Toré or die trying. He's the only family I have left!" Samus shouted, adrenaline pumping through her veins.

Master Yurh sighed. "Samus, come with me. There's something I think you should see."

Samus was a bit annoyed that Master Yurh was wasting time, but she decided to go with him anyway. Caern followed both of them out of the stadium and down to a large, dome-shaped building. The door had a security lock on it, and Master Yurh had to swipe a card and place his finger in a sensor to gain access. The two humans entered the building apprehensively, intimidated.

Master Yurh led the two down a bunch of long corridors and through several rooms. Eventually, they came to a door that said, "EMPLOYEES ONLY." Samus and Caern exchanged glances as Master Yurh unlocked the door. They followed him into a large room with several computers and power tools all around. He led them to a large glass tank, in which there was an orange power suit.

Samus gasped. She had seen the chozo wear power suits like this several times before. Like all power suits, the right arm was replaced with a blaster. Unlike all of the other power suits Samus had seen, the helmet did not have a long space for a beak: It was completely flat, with a T shaped, green visor. The feet were not large and wide like a chozo's, they were more like human boots than anything else.

"Toré had this made for you, Samus," Master Yurh explained, "He was going to give it to you on your eighteenth birthday. He was going to take you to explore the galaxy with him. He wanted you to see the place where you were born." Samus stared in awe at the shining orange suit sitting in front of her. It was the most beautiful and most terrifying thing she had ever seen.

"I think that now is the time that it will come in handy." Master Yurh announced, almost triumphantly. The chozo power suit was a technological wonder. It was not entirely mechanical, as it had biological features as well. For example, a chozo never needs more than one power suit in his life, as it grows with the user. It can also sense and regulate things such as body heat, heartbeats, and breathing.

"This power suit was equipped with a scan visor, charge beam, morph ball, and twenty missiles. At a later date we can upgrade it to give you more features as they become necessary," Master Yurh was saying. "Now, let's get you suited up and I'll teach you the basics."


	19. Loyalty

_Next chapter is up! I know it's short, deal with it. I'm not sure why, but I'm not as pleased with this chapter. We'll see what you say about it. :D_

_Pixiegirl- The power suit is the thing that Samus wears in all of her games. It protects her and can be used as a weapon. And yes, Caern's still around: You'll see._

_Shiekan-Fire- That was honest criticism. I agree, but, like you said, I'm not sure how I could fix it. I suppose I could go back and add little snippets of thoughts here and there, and that might alleviate it a bit, but other than that, I think it'll just have to do as-is. Thanks!_

_I know that the action has been rather fleeting in this fic: In a couple of chapters, that's all going to change! evil grin_

**Loyalty**

"Excuse me, Master, but what about me?" Caern asked the old chozo whilst Samus was trying out her suit's functions by herself.

"Why, what do you mean?" Master Yurh said quizzically.

"Do you have anything that I could use to help find Samus' father?" Caern asked him. Samus overheard him.

"You can't come with me Caern! You could get killed!" She exclaimed, taking off her helmet.

"No, Samus. You've helped me escape from the space pirates. Now it's my turn to help you. I'm coming with you," Caern stated. Samus was shocked by his bluntness. This was a side of Caern she had never seen before.

"I can't let you risk your life for me," Samus explained, "You'll have to stay here."

"Samus, you're going to need all the help you can get in there. I know it's crazy, and I'm sure we'll both get killed in the process, but there's no way you can stop me from coming along," Caern's decision was final. Nothing could change his mind. He turned to face Master Yurh again. "Excuse me, Master, sir, is there anything I could use to help Samus?"

Master Yurh looked at him gravely. "Perhaps. But you know, Samus has been trained by our finest teachers: She will be much safer in the pirates' base than you will. You must be absolutely certain that this is what you want to do, as this excursion could easily claim your life."

"I know. I must help Samus. I could not live with myself if I let her go alone anyway, knowing how much she has already done for me," Caern murmured. Master Yurh nodded.

"Very well. I believe we have a Galactic Federation Marine suit somewhere. It is not nearly as versatile as Samus' chozo suit, but it is still very effective, and is used by all of the Galactic Federations' marines," Master Yurh explained. Caern nodded.

Master Yurh again led the two humans down a series of corridors and passageways to yet another room, this one more like a storage closet than anything else. From it, the wise old chozo extracted a silver, human shaped suit with a blue visor. It was a good deal heavier and less flexible than Samus' chozo-built suit, but it was still powerful enough for this mission.

Handing Caern a Galactic Federation Marine-Class blaster, Master Yurh explained, "This suit is fairly self-explanatory. The helmet displays your vital signs at all times. You must be careful, as the shields in your suit will not last too long." Caern gulped, nodding. He began to wonder if he was truly making the right decision.

"Both of you are about to enter a very dangerous region. I implore both of you to be cautious. Do not rush forward into any situation: Take your time to accurately evaluate and assess every situation. It may mean the difference between life and death."

-X-

The two humans carefully approached the entrance to the Brinstar mines. Last time, they had been helpless and trying to get out; this time they were armed to the nines and trying to get in. Both humans had kept the wrist-blades they had stolen from the pirates at the beginning of their journeys, and wore them on their left hands. Caern had his blaster in his right hand, and Samus' right hand was hidden inside her arm cannon.

Samus opened the door and immediately swung her arm cannon around, ready to fire at any surprised pirates beyond. The room was empty, and they decided to move on. They found an elevator that would take them deeper into Brinstar. After Samus scanned the area for traps, they took it down.

For the first few hours, the journey was fairly uneventful. There were a few small native creatures that would have seemed menacing before, but they were easily disposed of with the humans' new weapons. Caern seemed to be adjusting to the marine suit well, having little trouble moving around with relative agility. He was much less afraid of the caves as he was before: The armor he wore, not to mention his powerful blaster, gave him a secure feeling.

After a while, the two humans made their way to an elevator labeled, "To Tourian." They looked at each other, remembering the words Master Yurh had spoken back at the assembly: "It is also believed that the pirates have positioned themselves in a series of caves to the West of Brinstar called Tourian."

Without hesitation, the two stepped onto the platform and started down.


	20. Saving Lives

_Here comes another chapter! Yay! I really like this chapter: We'll see how you all feel about it. I was actually going to take this chapter a lot further than I did, but the last sentence left such a great cliffhanger, I had to break it off there. Don't forget to leave a review!_

_LemurianGirl- Oh, father? Right, I knew that. :P I'm not sure where I got brother… I'll have to go back and reread to see what I was thinking…_

_CDBuder- You may write about that pirate as long as you mention my name (Authraw) and this story's name (The Hatchling) in an author's note at the beginning. However, I would advise you to wait for a few more chapters, as I have plans for that character. You'll see exactly what I have in store…_

_Aran'sApprentice- Glad you think they feel human. I was trying to avoid making them seem like any other species. :P_

_And now… The chapter!_

**Saving Lives**

As soon as Samus and Caern arrived at Tourian, they knew that this was the place. The walls were covered in a silvery metal. There were machines and computer monitors everywhere. Wires and pipes stuck out from the walls here and there. It was clear that the pirates had made this their home base.

Samus gave Caern a look through her visor that said, "Be careful from here on out." He nodded, understanding. Carefully, Samus started toward the room's lone door.

She walked up to it and opened it. The speed at which the automatic door opened unnerved her. Any pirates in the next room would know of their presence immediately. Samus took note of this and was relieved to find that the next room was empty. She turned to face Caern, who was still hovering around the elevator.

"Cover me!" She whispered. A small vent in her helmet allowed for verbal communication. Caern lifted his gun and stepped towards her in response. Samus turned to face the new room again and moved in.

Sitting in the center of the room was a huge machine. It seemed to have room enough in the center for a human (or pirate, for that matter) to stand inside of it. Samus decided it was best to avoid the machine for now, not knowing exactly what it did.

She moved to the next door, Caern close behind. Samus motioned to get to one side of the door, next to the wall. Caern did so. Samus got to the other side and opened the door, quickly pulling herself against the wall, so as not to be seen by any pirates that could be lurking beyond. The door opened noiselessly, so the humans assumed the room must be safe.

Samus carefully moved into the room. This one was another small room with unusual looking machinery all around it. Samus checked for any signs that there were pirates nearby. She found nothing.

Then Samus recognized something that made her heart jump: A stasis tank, exactly like the one the pirates' had been keeping her in when they captured her. Trying not to lose her grip, Samus turned to the next door, trying to push down her feelings of fear.

A little girl, hiding under her bed.

Samus opened this door, carefully, like she had the last time. She entered the room slowly, Caern following her. This door opened up onto what was more like a balcony, overlooking a larger room below. There was a staircase leading down to the lower room at the other end of the balcony.

After slowly crossing about halfway across the balcony, both humans froze. They heard a door below open up, and a pirate trudged in. It was grumbling something to itself, and it immediately started tapping away on a computer.

Samus motioned for Caern to stay where he was, with his gun pinned on the pirate from above. Samus would move down the steps and take the pirate out. Caern nodded and walked close enough to the edge of the balcony to fire at the pirate if need be. Samus moved to the stairs.

When she had climbed low enough to see the pirate clearly, Samus had to stifle a gasp. She saw severe burn scars on the pirate's lower body. This was the very pirate that the two humans had saved back in the caves!

Sensing Samus' presence, the pirate turned around, expecting to see a fellow pirate. He was shocked to see a large, orange, humanoid figure standing in front of him. Uttering some space pirate interjection, he pulled his gun from his holster on his waist.

Samus sprung into action. Immediately pulling a roundhouse kick, Samus disarmed the pirate in a quick move. A few shots were fired from above, but they were far from their mark, as the pirate was now jumping around, trying to get back to its gun, which was now sliding across the floor.

Samus swung her foot low, tripping the pirate, and then brought her fist down on the back of its neck, sending it sprawling on the ground. It quickly rolled over onto its back with a frightened look on its face. It managed to sit up and scoot itself away from Samus, but it soon found itself cornered, with no weapon. It did not seem to be carrying a wrist blade.

Samus charged her arm cannon, preparing for the final blow. She looked into the face of the pirate she was about to kill. Its eyes were once again sorrowful, pleading. Once again she held the life of this pirate in her hands.

_Just fire at it. It will be all over. You just have to kill it and you won't have to worry about it anymore._ Raising her arm cannon, now glowing a bright orange because it was charged up for a full-power shot, Samus aimed the gun at the pirate's head. But again she was pulled into the pirate's eyes, begging for mercy, imploring her to spare it.

Like a young child, hiding under a bed.

"It'd be a waste," Samus muttered to herself, discharging the gun at a computer instead of the pirate. It exploded a little louder than she had intended. She raised her arm cannon in the air and dealt the pirate a sharp crack on the head, knocking him out.

"Let's keep moving, and hope nobody heard us," Samus called to Caern. He came dashing down the stairs, eager to move on. A little less cautiously than before, Samus opened the next door. The sight that met her was the most shocking and disturbing thing she had ever seen.


	21. Torment

_We're nearing the end, now. I really like this chapter. I won't spoil it with a big author's note: just read._

**Torment**

Samus gazed into a large room full of stasis tanks, each with a different organism floating in it. They were all disfigured in various ways: Some bloated, some missing limbs or other body parts, some with other species' parts crudely sewn onto them.

The most horrifying thing Samus saw was the figure of a chozo, horribly misshapen, slumped in a tank in the center. She slowly walked to it in morbid fascination, as if observing a train wreck: She didn't really want to look, but she felt compelled to.

"Samus, look at this!" Caern called to her from across the room. Samus took a moment to respond.

Tearing her eyes away from the ghastly sight, Samus replied, "What is it?"

"It seems to be a recording of an experiment they did," He answered. Samus walked over and took a look at the computer screen displaying the picture.

She saw two pirates working in a room with a large table in the center. Samus gasped: That was the very room she had been in when she was captured, or at least a room quite like it. Memories flooded back to her. She pushed them away.

Then she noticed something that was also quite peculiar: One of the pirates had severe burns on his lower body. It was the exact same pirate that Samus had saved twice. Now she would get an idea of exactly what this pirate does.

The door opened, and two burly pirates lugged in a creature that was wriggling and kicking frantically.

Samus slammed her fists on the desk. "It can't be…" Her eyes widening with terror, she studied the writhing creature. "No!" All of her fears were validated at this very moment: The creature was her own adoptive father: Toré.

The entire world around her disappeared. Now all she could see was the screen in front of her. The pirates strapped Toré to the table, and the burned pirate produced a needle. After injecting a clear liquid into Toré's forehead, the pirate turned and picked up a menacing looking tool with sharp projections all around it.

In sheer mortification, Samus saw the burned pirate proceed to conduct some sort of surgery on Toré. The injection was obviously not a sedative, as she could see the muscles in Toré's arm twitch in agony with every cut the pirate made. After several terrible minutes, the pirate sewed up Toré in an uneven manner.

Samus felt sick. She would have thrown up if her suit would not have regulated her system and prevented her from doing so. She couldn't watch any more. She closed the program. In a separate window that was open, Samus saw a log of the event. Her helmet automatically translated the foreign characters to words she could understand.

She read the words there, barely comprehending their meaning. "Subject chozo was given twelve units of mutative substance class VII and pirate DNA was injected into bloodstream. Various sensors were implanted under the skin. Shortly after surgery, the subject went into cardiac arrest and expired."

Feeling her breathing become short and her vision fading, Samus clutched the desk to stabilize herself. Her suit was working overtime to keep her conscious. Caern merely watched, not knowing what to do. He felt very vulnerable, both of them sitting still for so long, but he didn't know if Samus would be receptive to anything he tried to tell her at the moment.

After giving her a few minutes, Caern said softly, "Samus, we really need to keep moving." As she raised her head and slowly turned from the desk, Caern realized that she had been crying. Pretending not to notice, he started to make his way back to the door they had come from.

"We failed Caern," Samus sobbed, unable to hold her sorrow back. "We didn't make it in time. We just didn't make it…" Caern gave her a sad look, wanting nothing more than a way to make her happy, but that was impossible at the moment. They simply had to make it out alive. Then Caern would try to sort through things.

Caern opened the door and then jumped back. Standing there, waiting, was the pirate with the burn scars. He had found a wrist blade somewhere and was now charging towards Caern with it drawn. He quickly jumped back and fumbled for his gun. Unfortunately, he ended up dropping it on the floor.

The pirate slashed at Caern again, this time nearly catching his arm. Caern's marine suit was strong, but the pirate's blade would be able to pierce it with little effort. Caern managed to scrabble behind a tank, temporarily protecting himself. Samus was hiding behind another tank, charging her beam weapon.

"Samus! He's coming around to your left!" Caern warned, seeing the pirate about to catch her off guard. She jumped out of the way, but unfortunately also accidentally fired her beam, burning a circle in the floor. While she charged up for another shot, the pirate was chasing her around the room. He managed to corner her, and he raised his blade.

Seemingly coming from nowhere, Caern kicked the pirate to the floor. He had retrieved his gun and was now aiming it at the pirate. Samus ran back to the center of the room to avoid being cornered again.

The pirate swung his foot around and tripped Caern, throwing him to the floor. Before he could recover, the pirate managed to stand up and stood over Caern.

Samus seemed to be watching this whole thing in slow motion as her gun charged, all too slowly. The pirate raised his blade in the air, and triumphantly plunged it into Caern's back. Caern let out a cry of pain as the blade tore through his flesh.

Letting out a cry of despair, Samus arrived too late, kicking the pirate away. He quickly rose and came at Samus, his dripping, crimson blade raised above his head. Samus jumped out of the way and fired her beam at the pirate, missing. Samus cursed and ran backwards to the other side of the room.

Suddenly, Samus tripped over a power cord running along the floor. She fell on her back with a thud. The pirate came up, roaring in fury, raising his blade for the final blow.

Suddenly, it shattered in the air. Turning around, shocked, the pirate saw Caern, lying on his stomach, was clutching his gun, his finger on the trigger.

Not missing the opportunity, Samus fired a missile at one of the empty stasis tanks in the room, bringing it crashing down on the pirate, pinning him to the ground.

Immediately, Samus jumped up and ran over to Caern. He had a large hole in his back, and he was now lying in a pool of his own blood. Carefully, Samus removed his helmet and turned him over so that she could look at his face.

"No… Caern, I'm so sorry, it's all my fault…" Samus whimpered, removing her own helmet. "If I had only killed that pirate when I had the chance…"

"Don't blame yourself, Samus," Caern muttered, his breathing becoming ragged. "You did the right thing back there. You've helped me all the way through. Thank you."

"Caern…" Samus sobbed. She wanted to save him. She wanted to make everything right. She wanted to stop her world from crashing down around her. But she was helpless.

The chozo were trained to be able to control their feelings, to be able to handle extreme mental trauma. But Samus had lost her father, and was now losing her best friend, all in the past few minutes. It was too much for her to bear. She was nothing more than that little girl, hiding under her bed as her parents and neighbors were massacred. It was exactly the same.

"_No,"_ Samus thought. _"I was helpless then."_

She stood up, her heart pounding, racing. She felt hatred well up inside of her, for all the pirates had done. They had killed her biological parents. They had killed her adoptive father. They had killed her best friend. They had destroyed her life.

Samus noticed that the pirate was still pinned beneath the stasis tank. It was wriggling and writhing, trying to get free. She walked up to it. It was now the helpless one, and it was completely at Samus' mercy.

"I saved your life. Twice," Samus was saying, "And how do you repay me? You kill my father and my best friend. Do you know how that makes me feel?" Samus bent down, her nose nearly touching the pirate's. She saw complete terror in the pirate's face. This time, there was no pity. Samus laughed. "It makes me feel very, very angry."

The pirate's eyes got wide with realization. Terror shook his entire being as Samus stood up and began fiddling with the controls on her arm cannon. "I've never met a trustworthy pirate," She was saying to herself.

The Hunter was born.


	22. Return

_This is it! This is the final chapter! Don't forget to leave a review, and read the afterword (next chapter.)_

_To all who asked weather or not this story was over yet, the answer is no, obviously. Well, this is the last chapter, but the previous one wasn't. There were some loose ends I wanted to tie up, yet._

_I'm glad you guys seem to like it:D Well, enough of this: Finish the story!_

**Return**

Samus dragged herself back to Chozodia, barely noticing the armed guards now standing at the entrance. She was weary, everything that had happened in the past few short hours now collapsing in on her.

Upon her entry into the city, many onlookers gathered around, mumbling and whispering to each other. Samus didn't care. Nothing really mattered any more.

Master Yurh came through the crowd and approached Samus. He had a shocked look on his face. "Samus, what have you done?"

Samus looked down at herself, still fully armored in her power suit. She was covered in a bright green liquid. She was baffled for a moment, unsure of what it was. Then she seemed to remember, if only vaguely, what had happened.

Suddenly feeling the weight of what she had done, Samus brought her hands to her head. "I killed them, Master!" She murmured through uncontrollable sobs, "I killed them all!"

Master Yurh turned to the crowd. "Chozo, get back to your jobs. The attack will be tomorrow: Make sure we are ready. Go on." They slowly dissipated, still catching glances at the human clad in chozo armor, stained with pirate blood. Master Yurh took Samus' hand and led her to his hut. She sat down on a chair. She was still weeping over the lives she had taken.

After removing her helmet and allowing her some time to recuperate, Master Yurh spoke. "We are at war, Samus. The chozo are a peace-loving people, and they hate to claim the lives of others, but there are times that it is necessary—"

"No!" Samus yelled through her tears, startling the chozo. "You don't understand. I didn't just kill them, I… I… I made them suffer, Master. I _wanted_ to hurt them. I _tried_ to make it as painful as possible. I— I just…" Samus trailed off. Master Yurh seemed pensive, and remained silent. "I'm a horrible person, aren't I, Master?"

"No, Samus," He responded. How else could he respond? Then again, Samus was responsible for torturing hundreds of pirates to death. He was, for once in his life, completely at a loss for words.

Samus once again burst into tears. Her life was in shambles, and she had now done something she could never take back. Master Yurh wanted to comfort her. "Let's get you cleaned up, and then you need a good night's rest," He said, standing up.

Numbly, Samus removed her suit and sat back down. Master Yurh took it and placed it on the porch. He would hose it off later. Right now, Samus needed support.

-X-

The next morning, Samus woke with a start. She had slept fitfully, and when she could sleep, nightmares plagued her.

Stepping into the living room, Samus saw that her suit had been washed off and was waiting for her in a corner. The shiny orange luster had returned to it.

Samus slumped down in a chair in Master Yurh's living room. It was big and soft, and she sunk into the chair. It comforted her, in a way. She got to thinking about what had happened last night.

The chozo were a very peace loving people. They hated war, but understood it. The warrior's code clearly stated that they should only kill as many of the opponents as necessary, and to always be humane. Samus had been anything but humane. She shuddered at the memory of it.

The chozo people would not understand what she had done. They would not understand that her loss had caused a momentary lapse in sanity. They would only see the human girl who murdered hundreds of pirates in cold blood. They might even call for her arrest, fearing her to be volatile. Is that what she wanted? To spend the rest of her life in jail, or at the very least, with people always holding her suspect, never trusting her?

She couldn't live like that.

Springing from the chair, her mind made up, Samus dashed out of the door. Running down the empty streets, she started to head towards the Cliffs of Chozodia. Before getting too far, however, she turned around and headed back to Master Yurh's house. She looked at the shiny orange suit leaning up against the wall.

A few moments later, Samus re-emerged from the building with her armor on. She started running, running away from everything she'd ever known, just running, leaving all of it behind her.

She passed her old schoolhouse. She remembered all of the time she had spent there, learning the ways of the chozo. They were useless now. She would be living all alone, somewhere in the wilderness. She thought about what a waste it had all been.

She never stopped running, even as she approached the edge of the cliff. For a brief moment, she thought about throwing herself off of it instead of climbing down, but then she was ashamed of herself. She couldn't do that. She wasn't just living for herself anymore, she now had to survive to uphold the legacy of her lost loved ones.

Almost automatically, Samus made her way down the face of the cliff. She was alone with her thoughts now. She was all alone in such a huge universe. Everybody she had ever cared for was gone now.

After reaching the ground, Samus broke out into a run again. She ran faster than she ever had before, determined to outrun her painful past. She was going to start over.

Samus ran for what seemed like forever, never slowing down or stopping for anything. Suddenly she saw a shape on the horizon. It started as a small dot, and then, as Samus approached it, it slowly took shape.

She slowed her pace to examine the thing. It turned out to be a small Space Pirate ship, abandoned by the pirates that had no doubt used it. Checking to see that nobody was around, Samus slowly walked into the ship.

Samus didn't know very much about ships like this. She had never been away from Zebes since the chozo had brought her here. She walked around, looking at all of the complicated buttons and controls, trying to make sense of them all.

Then she thought of something. She reached her left hand up to her helmet, feeling for the button that switched on the scan visor. After a moment, she found it and used the complex device to gather information about the different uses of each control.

She quickly found what she was searching for. Her scan visor identified one of the buttons as an autopilot device. After scrolling through a list of planets pre-programmed into the autopilot, Samus selected one called "Ceres". In all honesty, Samus had only heard of some of the names that she found there; she knew nothing of where she was actually going.

After activating the autopilot, the engines of the small craft roared to life. In a few seconds, it was off the ground and soaring upwards into the vast sky. Samus didn't know what the future held for her, but she sincerely hoped that it would be better than what she was leaving behind.

As the craft broke the atmosphere, Samus sat back, almost relieved. She would now be able to start all over, never looking back. She would get a new life out there, somewhere, and she promised herself that she would never let anybody hurt her again.

And that, my friends, is how the young bounty hunter, Samus Aran, got her start. She would come to be known by many names, such as "The Huntress" and "The Metal Hunter," but to the chozo, she would ever be called "The Hatchling."

**See you next mission!**


	23. Afterword

_Well, that's it. Hope you all liked it. The purpose of this fanfiction was twofold: First of all, I wanted to perfect my cliffhanger technique. Second of all, I wanted to present my own theories to many of the different mysteries in the Metroid universe, most of all, how Samus could become a cold-blooded killer, having no qualms about entering a space pirate base and killing hundreds of pirates._

_Anyway, any more reviews which require a reply will be answered as a review. Thanks a lot for reading, and stay tuned for the sequel!_

**Afterword**

Unbeknownst to Samus, after three long cycles, the chozo would lose their war against the space pirates. The pirates' commanders were far too cunning, and much more experienced than those of the chozo people. The pirates were brutal, and were willing to take risks with their own troops that the chozo were not willing to take. The pirates eventually hunted down and killed all of the chozo on the planet, effectively making them an endangered species (as the only other known chozo colony now lived on the planet Tallon IV.) The pirates claimed the planet as their own, eventually using it as their new headquarters.

Upon nearing the space station Ceres, a gigantic station built on an asteroid for scientific research, Samus was stopped by the Galactic Federation police. They recognized the pirate craft and were preparing for a fight, but when they heard Samus' story, they took her to the planet Enlyst and she moved into a large city there. After some time, she managed to settle in, and found a new life as a bounty hunter, searching for the galaxy's most unsavory denizens with her trusty chozo-made power suit.

And the rest, as you know, is history.


End file.
